Kentwell Cup
Great first win of the 2021 season for First Grade, 36-14 over Blue Mountains at home.
With Lachy Scott away Connor Hughes displayed some great versatility to step into the hooking role and delivering in both scrummaging and the more difficult task of lineout throwing which now provides some handy versatlity as the season progresses.
Again our set piece dominated, especially our scrum with Rohan Cook destroying Blue Mountains Loose Head. Sadly, the referees cannot comprehend Rohan’s dominance and try to find fault rather than understand that the Loose Head has buckled under pressure. Eventually, we will get a referee (probably a former front rower) that will appreciate Rohan’s skill in the Dark Arts and reward Knox properly. With this set piece dominance, this enabled Luke Bowden to plug the corners with massive spiral kicks and lock Blue Mountains into their own half for most of the game.
We scored 3 good tries, by Hamish McGilvary, James Winterton & Matty Lawson. Could have been 4 with David Stenning knocking-on in-goal.
3 – Oscar Alcock (who is enjoying the backow & getting through a power of tackles & run metres)
2 – Luke Bowden
1 – Connor Hughes & Fraser Engelen
Burke Cup
Each week we are building on the work from the previous game. After a point point loss on the bell against Mosman and a one point win against Drummoyne, this week saw the 2nds construct their best win of the season.
Whilst most of the first 35 min was played between our 22 and the half way line, we took first points of the game with a good try to Jack Kane and conversion by Ben Parsonage. Our scrum was dominating again and our line out this week was working well with options with captain James Winterton and evergreen legend Andy Rasmus.
Blue Mountains only real attacking player was their No 12, however any danger here was shut down by the great defence of Harry Stocks, Matt Horsley and Michael Westerway. And their was no way the Blue Mountains pack was going to make any in roads against our forwards.
A converted try by Blue Mountains levelled the game however a well taken penalty by Parsonage put us ahead at half time.
It was in the second half that saw Knox take control of the game. Strong running by the forwards close to the ruck by players such as Rob Batchelor, Jonno Stenning, Max Carroll and Angus Boulton, always put us over the gain line. A Hail Mary, behind the back pass by Matt Davis set up a ruck from which Tim While at half back, taking advantage of an overzealous defence, to snipe his way through for an great individual try. Another conversion to Parsonage pushed Knox to a lead of 10 points at 17-7. The best passage of play by both forwards and backs saw Harry Stocks score Knox’s third try and another conversion by Parsonage saw the score finish at 24-7.
Individual skills are strong across the team however we still need to play the game in the opposition half. Better planning and executing our exit from our own half will see us playing higher percentage rugby in the opposition half and moving the score in our favour.<
3 – James Winterton
2 – Angus Boulton
1 – Matt Davis and Rob Batchelor
Barbour Cup
Despite the poor start to the season, the Colts energy and commitment has continued to increase week on week. This culminated in a great vibe for our clash against the Blue Mountains.
The Mountains led early after a horror start from us, with the ball stripped straight from the kick off, resulting in an untouched try under the posts. Fortunately we reset, and began to get stuck into the game plan. Coming up against a big pack we tried to run our forward runners wider, getting into space rather than simply bashing it up the middle.
This was successful with a couple of smart tries down the blind side after sucking the Mountains outside backs centre field. As has been the case for us so far this season, lapses for 1 minute have severely punished us – this continued, with 2 soft tries to the Mountains when we simply stopped after dropped balls.
We fought until the end, but lacked execution in the opposition 22 and were unable to convert pressure into points, falling 1 try short. Each week we’re improving, and with the injection of some new names in Cooper Barr, Lucas Chamen and Ollie Moore, things are looking up.
We will keep building brick by brick, and a result will come shortly!
3 – Peter Sherlock
2 – Lucas Chamen
1 – Cooper Barr
Judd Cup
It was great to see the mighty 4ths take the field for a second week in a row – this time with only a sprinkling of former club legends.
Right from the outset Blue Mountains proved to be a formidable opponent – reasonably well-drilled, quite large and with some fast backs – and we found ourselves a couple of tries down after 10 minutes.
But leading into halftime we gained some possession, worked our way back into the game and were unlucky not to score what would have been a well-earned try.
The forwards toiled hard against a big pack with the likes captain Myles Taylor, Lachy Williams, Henry Griffin and Josh Browne leading the charge. Matt Geokjian tackled his heart out all day and earned Man-Of-the Match honours. Michael O’Day played well at 9 and scored a late try to finish the game. We welcomed newcomer Andrew Wallace who impressed in both attack and defence. We also saw a cameo from club legend 500-gamer Ian “Big Macca” McLaughlan. A big thank you must go to our Colts who made up almost our entire backline – Michael O’Day, Jayllen Naganayagam, Jack Smith, James Donnison, Dan Mooney, Will Bondy. Great effort fellas. Much appreciated. Final score 7-36.
3 – M.Geokijn
2 – M. O’Day
1 – A. Wallace