National U/16 Championships 2009

[Lee Grant]

Please post team details and write your comments on the tournament here.


Here are the details of the tournament from the ARU though another site has the tournament starting on Saturday.

http://aru.rugby.com.au/fixtures_results/national_under_16s_championship/division_1_draw_and_results,133037.html

Please advise if you can confirm the ARU details - or not.


New South Wales Schools Rugby
Union Under 16 Team, 2009


Attalah, Zac The Kings School
Baldwin, Mark Newington College
Barratt, Peter Sydney Grammar School
Bond, Cameron St Joseph's College
Date, Jason Kinross Wolaroi School
Deans, Nathaniel St Joseph's College
Dombkins, Rhys Hunter Sports High School
Hulme, Matt St Joseph's College
Johnson, Brett Knox Grammar
Jones, Anthony Trinity Grammar School
Langi, Samisoni Trinity Catholic College Auburn
Lawley, Ben Knox Grammar
Masiasomua, Johnathon Prariewood High School
McDonald, Finlay Newington College
Merriman, Jock Shore School
Moore, Clarrie The Scots College
Sam O'Brien St Ignatius College
Purcell, John Junior St Augustine's College Brookvale
Roye, Nathan Newington College
Sau, Matagi Endeavour Sports High School
Tanginoa, Saia Prariewood High School
Vilimaa, Adam The Kings School
Wells, Michael St Ignatius College

 

[Lance Free]

The two U16 Queensland Schoolboys teams are:

Queensland Red

Jay Adkins Nudgee College
Winiata Barrett The Southport School
Jack Bridges Gregory Terrace
Matt Fairnington The Southport School
Kieran Fitzgibbon Toowoomba Grammar School
Lucas Frater Anglican Church Grammar School
Hymel Hunt Nudgee College
Stephen Hunt Nudgee College
Hylton Jones Nudgee College
Phil Kite Nudgee College
James Klaassen Villanova College
Dan Lane Anglican Church Grammar School
Fatai Latu St Francis College
Nick Malouf Anglican Church Grammar School
Ben Meehan Brisbane State High School
Jake Milne Nudgee College
Isiah Mosese Sandgate District SHS
Maile Ngauamo Chisholm College
Dan O'Leary Downlands College
Zac Santo Blackheath & Thornburgh College
Henry Taefu Anglican Church Grammar School
Jordan Tighe Ipswich Grammar School
Campbell Wakely Kingscliff SHS

Queensland White

Ben Arnold Nudgee College
Sam Bartlett Gregory Terrace
Emmanuel Bell Villanova College
Matt Berwick Our Lady of the Southern Cross, Dalby
Billy Brittain Nudgee College
Dean Cockin St Stephen's
Grant Davies Coombabah SHS
Jesse Foran Nudgee College
Josh Frater Anglican Church Grammar School
Sam Kerevi Brisbane State High School
Fa'atausili Laifatele Victoria Point SHS
Duncan McNicol St Stephen's
Ryan O'Connell Downlands College
Nick Oui The Southport School
Elija Palupe Brisbane State High School
Elisha Palupe Brisbane State High School
Paraka Pettowa The Southport School
Bryson Rukuwai Coombabah SHS
Nathan Shewry Nudgee College
Jack Straker Brisbane Grammar School
Joseph Swann Mabel Park SHS
Lausii Taliauli The Southport School
Ben Watt Nudgee College

I notice that there's only two boys out of 46 who come from the 2nd tier AIC competition - this must be a new low?

 

[Lee Grant]

Queensland Red 50 Victoria 17

Victoria were outclassed but they had some very good players, who, had they been wearing a Red jersey, would have looked even better than they did. That could have been said about many of the players in losing teams today. The elusive 13 Fa'alava'au was a good stepper and the huge 8 was hard to stop. His surname was Maka and you could see the bloodlines of Finau and Isotola Maka in his play.


Qld Red had a lot of good players, as you would expect and their fast runners at the back were exellent - Santo and Klaasen who shared the fullback role, and winger Mosese. 12 Hunt was also very good from the bench. 10 Milne has a big boot which he used to good effect tactically.


LHP Fitzgibbon is a huge mobile unit, who I wouldn't let anywhere near my fridge, and skipper Malouf playing 7 looked every bit like Liam Gill did in the Open tournament not too long ago.



South Australia 65 Tasmania 7 [Div II]

Didn't see any of this game as it was on at the same time as the end of the 1st game and the beginning of the 3rd on another ground.



Queensland White 65 Western Australia 13

WA had some top forwards – a good scrum and even scored a maul try, but Qld White had the backs. Qld were ahead just 25-8 at oranges but put the hammer down in the 2nd half.

For Qld White 10 Grant had a top game. He kicked too much at first but looked a whole lot better as the game opened up. 2 Lafaitele looked like TPN. 15 Bell is a well balanced runner and chimed in more and more as the game went on. If he missed a kick at goal, and he had a lot of conversions to make, I have forgotten it.

Star players: I saw a big Kiwi Islander player in a test at Hunters Hill in 2000 carrying Oz blokes on his back down the park. Qld White winger Taliauli didn't quite do that but he was reminiscent of the other guy. He was almost impossible to stop and scored 4 tries, I think. The Kiwi player's name, by the way, was Joe Rokocoko.


12 Palupe benefitted from some poor goal line defence from WA and cunning inside balls from Davies and scored 3 tries IIRR. He has a nice fend and knows how to set up a try too.


I couldn't work out why WA 3 Hoskins missed out on selection in the Oz A Schools squad this year but the answer is: he's an U16 player. As mentioned: the WA scrum was good and he hits the line hard with ball in hand. An outstanding performance.



National Indigineous 78 Northern Territory 11 [Div II]

The NI team put on a nice war dance before the game and they kept going in the same mode after kick-off, out-gunning the NT lads who lacked class and size. It's hard to credit how some of the NI players missed out on getting into the Div I squads but the opposition probably made them look better than they are.

Star Players: Nona was supposed to be a lock, (and he was one of the biggest lads on the ground), but the giant seagull could run like the wind. 15 Burns ran with the ball in both hands and had NT guessing every time.



Sydney Juniors 57 Brumbies 19

They should have swabbed both teams after the game because the score was 19-12 to the Brumbies at oranges. The SJ skipper was giving his players heaps behind the goal posts after 2 Brumbies tries, and said they were both against the run of play and SJ would run over them if they just settled down and cut out their mistakes.


It happened exactly as he said.


Geez a lot of the boys from both teams looked as big as Opens players. They smashed each other and it was a top game until SJ got on top. It's just as well they did as they looked like Brown's cows before that.


The Brumbies took just about all their chances in the 1st half and were rewarded for throwing the ball wide in their own red zone because the SJs couldn't cover the counter attack.


THP Amituanai had a top game as did live-wire winger Northam and 8 Latu, who is one of those big units who is light on his feet.


Star players: For the Brumbies 13 Laga'ali had a top game which included judging a nice intercept try- and 6 Elliott was involved in most of the 1st half breakouts.


10 Debreczeni was outstanding for the SJs. He's a lanky lad and got tremendous leverage kicking the pill. He was good at fixing opponents with runs to the line, ball in both hands, and then dishing it out for tries.



NSW Schools 38 NSW Country 5

NSW bombed any number of tries and looked liked their elders in the Open tournament this year. Country tried their best but were hardly ever in the NSW red zone, except on one occasion when they scored.


For NSW 11 Tanginoa is a fast big guy who was always hard to stop but his game awareness is lacking a bit. 14 Roye by contrast is an intelligent hard working player who as tough as nails and a strong finisher in traffic. Bate played well in both centre positions and 13 Langi was dynamic when he came on. 15 Hulme was dynamic a few times.


Star Players: 12/13 Purcell is an assured NSW player beyond his years and one of those Kiwi 2nd 5 types, though he played OK at 13 when they swapped around a bit. He took all the kicks for line and goal too. 2 Moore was a real goer and it will be good to see how he can “go” against better opposition.


So, NSW have some top players but they aren't really a good team yet.




Wednesday 7 October [Div I]

WA v Brumbies – should be a good game. WA will have to fix up their backline defence especially around the 12 channel. If they do, they may beat the Brumbies who collapsed in the 2nd half today.

Queensland Whites v Sydney Juniors – should be a top game and the way the SJs finished the game today you would have to pick them.

Queensland Reds v NSW Schools - have to go for the Reds unless NSW can play better as a team, in which case it will be “game on”.

[Disclaimer: Except for a handful of players, I don't know them; so I have to rely on my programme being accurate.]

 

[Lee Grant]

Day 2


South Australia 37 Northern Territory 5

SA are now 2 from 2 and are performing well given the small number of boys they have to choose from. NT were disappointing compared to some of the NT teams I have seen in the past. It was warming to hear from 2 sets of Tassie parents who follow Aussie Rules about how much their kids love the rugby game.


Western Australia 28 Brumbies 20

The Brumbies collapsed again in the 2nd half, this time being ahead 20-3 at half time. They looked good in the 1st half: not trying to compete up the middle but dishing it wide from a long way back to benefit from their good runners out wide There was a glorious team try when, 15 Lewis Holland (brother of Jake in Oz Schools and likewise with his socks down) did a beautiful dummy and after a long run positioned 10 Chalker to score 80 metres away.


It's a pity that the Brumbies had to stop for oranges as their scoring stopped also. The WA forwards dominated the go forward and even when the Brumbies pack had possession WA hassled them all the time so their quick wide balls became slow and off target. WA also tightened up their defence in the 12 channel since Day 1 and it made for a winning recipe.


Was that a South African accent from a WA coach? Dunno – but a maul try happened as soon as I heard it.


Star Players: For the Brumbies 15 Holland had a terrific 1st half and skipper 8 Cusack did his best to stop the yellow tide. For WA you have to name the whole pack but for me 7 Monteath, and 8 Le Roux from the base of the scrum, were the most noticeable. 12 Rehutai with the skunk hairdo had a good game and was better on defence today.



National Indigenous 52 Tasmania 14

Feel sorry for the Tassie boys because at their trials only 35 boys tried out and 23 are in the squad.


Saw only the 2nd half but Tassie must have been competitive in the 1st half as NI were head only 17-7 at the break. Apparently the Tas forwards were better than on Day 1. They threatened the NI line a few times in the 2nd half but had no answers for the innate ball awareness an skills of the NI lads that make them such good players in the AFL.


NI broke out time and time again from their own 22 to score tries that had us all wagging out heads in appreciation.


Star Players: Big lock Nona was dynamic again today and 10 Hoskins was launching finishers like livewire utility Durante time and time again.


Queenland White 24 Sydney Juniors 17


This was a good game that ebbed and flowed.


The Whites were dangerous from the scrum and caught SJ napping a few times and one time advanced a maul about 35M before the SJ 6 had to lift an opponents leg to stop it. He got a yellow card for his trouble and another team mate got another one later.


Those cards could have been the difference as the White forwards finished fresher and were committing themselves to the breakdown like blue heelers. Sometimes their work was that cohesive that it looked like they all played for the same school. The SJs never gave up though and scrapped their way to 17-17 before the Whites scored the winning try near the end.


The SJ passing didn't help their cause: there were too many passes from a lot of players at a teammate instead of in front of him.


Qld Winger Taliauli didn't have another Rocokoko match but one electric run with the other 29 lads following him meant that he was tightly marked all day. He is not a complete footie player yet; so if he improves his work off the ball he's going to be a good 'un.


Star Players: Qld White 10 Davies is a skinny young bugger but he plays with the heart of a lion, just like Ben Lucas when he was at school. Fullback Bell had a top game and was dangerous every time he had the pill.


For the SJs 10 Debreczeni had another good peformance and booted the ball a mile with the wind behind him – sometimes too far. He made a couple of mistakes but I like his long Larkham passes in front of wide runners. 15 Clark ignited his team a few times running onto the ball and looks like a good prospect.


Victoria 20 NSW Country 7


Didn't see the game, but it was 10-7 at half-time


NSW Schools 29 Queensland Reds 8


The Reds started with a hiss and a roar. They had an early scrum; a swarm of Reds backs ran at NSW on the back foot, and 13 Taefu ran through a big gap. Try. They looked good and scored a penalty later – but 8 was their final score.

They were disappointing and not as good as the White team in their forward work and were out of sorts in the backs.


NSW played the best game by any team in the 2 days and were a lot better than in Day 1. It was a bit strange to see a NSW School team at any level take advantage of just about all their opportunities. A couple of their tries were a bit random but they deserved their big win.


Star Players: They were all for NSW. 11 Tanginoa had a couple of big breaks, one of which lead to a try and the 12 Purcell and 13 Langi formed a no-go zone for Reds players after the first few minutes when Qld took a brief lead. [Note: Tanginoa and Langi are in the Bulldogs league stable.]


Skipper 7 Bond had an Elsom type game with a high work rate mixed with hard play and 14 Nathan Roye terrorised Qld every time he had the ball. He scored 2 tries IIRR and can he shift, or what? Watch this kid.


Friday, Day 3 [Div I]

Brumbies v NSW Country [7th/8th] Country have been disappointing this year and even the Brumbies should beat them.

Qld Red v Sydney Juniors [3rd/4th] I expect the Reds to lift and win.

WA v Victoria [5th/6th] WA forwards to have the Force to win.

NSW Schools v Qld Whites [Final] NSW to match the White forwards and win it in the backs.


[Disclaimer: Except for a handful of players, I don't know them; so I have to rely on the names in my programme being accurate.]