I was going to post about the trials yesterday but fell asleep and it's just as well as some of my intended comments about who should be picked or not picked would have left me with egg on my face.
NSW Is will be strong in the second row and at outside centre (there are so many of them; so you'd think that they would come up with a goodie). They also have two aces: fullback Woodhouse and backrower, O'Sullivan. If the GPS front row starts for NSW I, they should have a good scrum also.
With so many players who usually wear a 13 jersey, it doesn't leave room in the Ones for a specialist 12 or another winger apart from Ferris, the best wing of the trials; so there is weakness there.
Bad news for NSW is that 6/8 Usaia O'Sullivan was badly injured yesterday. Until then he wasn't as dominant as on Tuesday night but he had a few good runs, the last of which was to set up a try and which ended in his injury. He was picked in the team but I think he's no chance of passing the medical and playing next week as he could barely limp off even though he was being supported.
Nevertheless, as with some other boys last year, he is so good that he's a valid chance to make one of the Oz Schools teams, and arguably, before I see the other lads next week, the Ones.
If he is out, McCaffery from View could be swapped to the Ones to play 8. He has a high work rate and is as hard as nails, but doesn't have the build of a bruiser, and may find that 7 is his best spot as a senior player. 7 Goodman played well in parts in 2 of the 3 trial games I saw but he will have to pick up the pace next week against Queensland's Liam Gill who has a big rep. 7 was not a strong position in the NSW trials.
One pick I would have got right is the 2nd row. Michael Dempsey (View) and tall timber Greg Peterson (Scots) were terrific for GPS yesterday, albeit against a poor CHS team (beaten 48-7). The athletic Dempsey was good on Tues night too and Peterson stepped away for a try in the same match though was awkward in the lineout. But yesterday hooker Roach threw to the lineout better and there was no such clumsiness. MOTM yesterday, Dempsey, may play his senior rugby at 6 and could play there for the Ones.
Or, the 3rd lock chosen, Luke Jones, who made Oz Schools A last year, could play 6 or 8. He didn't play yesterday as he was injured against ISA last Sunday; so one hopes he can pass the medical.
Some folks may crow that there are no Joeys players in the Ones like last year and like last year I have to say that none of the boys deserved to be there. I thought 3 Lamont from the GPS IIs was a chance as was hooker Hickey who can play on the flank as well, but Hickey didn't even make the IIs.
The unluckiest players to miss out on the Ones IMO were 9 Jack Rowntree (Augies) and 15 Charles Wakim (Waverly), who are both in the Twos.
Stirzaker and Rowntree had a ding dong battle in the CAS v ISA battle yesterday in a close fought game that was 10-5 until just before the end and ended 17-5, but Stirzaker just edged him. Wakim would have got in the Ones in most years but Woodhouse (Scots) was the best player of the trials IMO.
cyclopath
CHS are getting weaker by the year yet I remember just a few years ago when Robbie Horne's CHS team dished up Kurtley Beale's GPS stars. A CHS teacher/coach said to me the other night that state schools rugby is not going to get any better. He mentioned sport becoming optional and the growing avid desire of female teachers and administators to steer students away from brutish pursuits.
Don't shoot me - I'm just the messenger.
