AIC Rugby 2017

Will be very interesting to see how these boys compare to a dominate GPS force this week.

GPS1 beat AIC 1 by 65 -10.
Massive difference in size,speed and fitness(even though GPS season has not started)

AIC very disappointing.

Missing a few players. A few injuries shows lack of depth. They played poor, couldnt catch and kicked to oposition who will only run back at you twice as fast (why? dumb rugby).
Noticed a few extra Eddies players for some reason, we all know how their season went.
Connors SPC , Tiquiri MCA will make one of the Qld teams. Possibly Jazz MCA, Anderson MCA, and St Peters winger might also get a look in. Connors best by a long way.
Size difference and pace significant, but not unexpected.
Probably 12 players at RL commitments which is a real concern for the AIC team moving foward.

A few AIC lads through- Emosi no where to be seen, needs to a ALOT fitter at the next level.

From my perspective the GPS 1 team were clearly ahead of the rest size speed and skill. The GPS selectors clearly got that part correct their tight five gave the backs fast and quick ball. I thought that the teams who played them were beaten before kickoff mentally but in reality they were not challenged.

CSS were the next best team they had some good players and a sense from the sidelines of team cohesion and that they were playing for each other.

AIC for mine the most disappointing they looked like a team who actually did not like each other. There sense of team and patterns was woeful. Perhaps a result of just finishing a hard fought season and having played against each other for 5 years. Some of the players who were selected can consider themselves very fortunate as they were IMO poor during the trials.

GPS 2 and 3 were big drop from the GPS 1 team and looked like they were in the middle of the pack. Many players picked from both of these teams were picked on previous reputation.

The Chairmans played their first game like they met in the car park ten minutes before kickoff and played accordingly. However by the end of the tournament playing GPS 3 they looked quite good and the score did not reflect the game.

As for some of the commentators who are complaining that the teams are pre-picked before the trials. I say to you have you not been paying attention for the last five years. That is the way it has always been school and club allegiances always win out.

My only gripe is that I note that training is at Ballymore and then for some reason they go to Sunnybank for a training session. I am sure Sunnybank are just doing this for altruistic reasons and not for recruiting. Obviously the three fields at Ballymore are being used that day. LOL

So what AIC boys will be back next year ?

I have :

Emosi TUQUIRI - PROP
Romeo TANIELLE - PROP
Bruce TEVEGA - LOCK
Kyle VAN DUNGREN - WING

Any others from this year's team that may be back ?

As to Harry Taylor , Lachlan Tennison Woods , Louis Maritz and Danny Heenan - I understand that all favoured playing Confraternity this year rather than go and play this tournament for AIC .so not a given they will be there next year

What's the view on these seemingly league centric guys and others such as them ? Will there be an interest to participate ?

I have MCA's Blayke Rozka and John Downes that will probably be in the mix and I'd nominate SLC's Liam Newton as being the best of next year's U16's that would be most capable of matching it in size and class

Any others from this year's U16's that are worthwhile keeping an eye on through this year's U16 State Trials / National Championships ?

GO, Harry Fox will also be back next year. Heenan isn't playing Confra as he's playing U16s SEQ League in the hope of being selected in the QLD team to play a curtain raiser before Origin 3. Neither is Harry Taylor (injured). I see league being more of a threat in the years to come with most AIC schools now participating in Confra.

Didn't realize Tanielle and Tuqiri still have another year. Hopefully they can both take their games to the next level.

I stand corrected in Tuqiri's case

He's finishing Grade 12 this year

I think most of the Lauries boys chose AIC over Confra. They had to make a choice between the 2.

You make it sound like they had a choice, there were about 3 genuine contenders for aic. I heard that before the season even started that boys were making themselves 'unavailable' for confro, most of these blokes were lucky to even play 1st XV let alone consider themselves rep players. Agree with happyman many of these players were very lucky to play aic, I think they called up the wrong players when a few injuries occurred.

They were told if they go for AIC they could not do Confro because of the overlapping schedule. Pretty simple to understand really. Regardless of what you think, they did.

Interesting theory, it must have been a different st Laurence's I was watching at banyo that contained a prop and 12 from the 1st xv who no doubt would have thought they were walk up starts for AIC. And the group picture of the team with these 2 players on the college Facebook must also be of a different st Laurence's team.

Well done to the AIC boys at the Nationals. Connors into the Australian team.


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Big congratulations to Connors making Aus schoolboys. Braydon Law must have gone close. From all reports he had an outstanding tournament.

What a great forward pack SPC had in 2016 - 2 Australian schoolboy reps in Connors and Sikimeti plus Jeral Skelton as a starter for Qld 1.

I didn't see Padua in 2017 so can't comment on their boys, but on what I saw Connors and Law were easily the best players in AIC this year and both would be right up there with the best forwards AIC has produced over the past 20 years or so.

Connors has the size, speed and skill to eventually become a Wallaby, whereas Law simply plays way above his weight with great leg drive, speed and the ability to smash much bigger guys in defence.

Connors is a great prospect and has done very well - congratulations.

On the 2016 SPC pack - fair point but despite this (if memory serves), they were outplayed by Padua, lost to SPLC and could only manage to tie for 3rd. I am not sure what lesson to take from that - but is hard to understand why they weren't more dominant?

I recall Nathan Sharpe telling a story about not winning a single game during his time at Villanova.

Maybe the lesson is that it take 15 players to make a team.

Well done to Connors though, he has done himself, his school and state proud.

I think you'll find Sharpie went to TSS.

Either way, a long history defeats for Sharpie