Found myself out at the first rugby games out at Tennyson in 2 years today, and what a cracker she was.
Terrace dominated the age group games, winning all the A games apart from the 15A's - pretty impressive considering this was Terrace's first hitout of the year.
The 2nd XV took an impressive victory over Churchie and their supposedly 'wonderful' depth, dominating in the forwards and looking slick in the backs. Star player 'Quade' Fitz-Walter also played admirably at fullback.
Finally, the 1st XV game was marred by some questionable refereeing towards the end of the game - earning the referee comparisons the infamous Bryce Lawrence from some sections of the audience. Tied through the first three quarters and until the last 2 minutes of the last, the much hyped Churchie XV only managed to score points on the unheralded Terrace team when their flanker was sinbinned for 'repeated infringements'. Churchie's halfback should have been sin binned twice, at one point he took the Terrace second rower out of the play and pinned him to the ground for seemingly no reason. While some may make a big deal out of the player's Churchie was missing - West, Quigley, Georgiou and Tanavasa - I don't think this would have made much of a difference. The ball rarely got wide enough for West to have made much of a difference on the wing (Terrace's scrambling defence was excellent), the returning 9/10 combo of Eason/Watson played well enough to be more than capable of handling the Terrace halves combination. Seb Georgiou's absence was probably the most felt, his go ahead in the forwards in the Suncorp games was missed as the Terrace forwards really had Churchie on the ropes for much of the game. In fact Churchie's set piece play was incredibly lacking, especially considering the number of games they have already played this year. Several lineout balls went astray, at least three were stolen by lanky second rower French, and Terrace's scrum was excellent against Churchie's - especially considering these were Terrace's first live scrums of the year.Terrace's two new lads played reasonably, but the best players from Terrace would have to have been Angus Fowler at 9 and James Dalgleish at 10, as well as big Benny Russell having a solid cameo off the bench. Toby McNamee would have been the pick of the forwards, earning a yellow card for his nuisance making at the breakdown.
Watch out for Terrace in 2012.