Sydney Colts 2011

agree manly are looking the goods atm to

Does anyone know what has happened to Ruka Hanlon? He was dropped from Easts 1sts colts recently. Quite a fall from grace.
Also Manly were great against the annointed ones on the weekend. Just goes to show how weak some of the so called elite schoolboys are when they play in a decent competition. They all look good when playing againnst Grammar but put them in against quality talent and they struggle. You only have to look at a couple of superstars who are still playing colts at Gordon.

I would have liked to be a fly on the wall when louden and his staff had a points meeting with his grade and colts a few weeks back. In regards to players dropping back is there an amount of qualifying games they need to have?
Any feedback on how manly dished up uni? in colts 1s.. also i saw randwick v uni in 3s had a 14 all draw.. not bad for a colts group who have struggled for depth in the past (due to uni/easts throwing $$$ degrees at local kids)..
southern districts have also struggled big time in ones/.
i would like to see a city v country 20s selection as well played next yr before next saturdays game? thoughts

Manly's forwards stepped up, needed to against the big, dominant pack of Uni. Backs contest was great to watch all day, especially both teams #13's going at each other.
Scrums were going Manly's way until about the 60 minute, whereby Uni started to assert their dominance.

Manly really needs to sort their middle of the field out, too many times it ruined the kicks of both teams by making the ball drop dead, also forces the ref to move scrums 15 metres each way.
Overall, Manly looks like the team to beat after their performance.

The 1sts Colts table is pretty tight at the top end with only 6 points between the top 4.

Lily

I think he's injured. I'm pretty sure not dropped.

Agree with your other comments. Interestingly, some Grammar boys are actually performing.

And the Pirates play three of those four, Uni, Randwick and Eastwood, at home in the second round. Easts would seem to be on a par with others in the top 6 but have lost a few close ones against them and could lose touch as the season unfolds. But, realistically, there's bugger all difference finishing 3 or 6 when the semis come around.

I'm sure the 4 "schoolboy" names in manly's colts team didn't help overcome the threat of the 5 "schoolboy" names in the Uni side.

What do they say about people who live in glass houses

Spewn I'm not 100 but he played to consecutive weeks, the first in 1sts and the following in 2nds so I can only assume that he has been dropped.
As for Iluvs comment the only schoolboy "star" from Manly was Hingano. My point was that just because a player is dominant in school football dies not necessarily mean he will star immediately in colts. Reasons for this include the weak nature of schoolboy football when in the ISA, GPS and CAS competitions only half of the teams are any good.
Another reason is that they are playing against people who potentially could be 2 years older than them. All this drooling over some of these teams in the last few years has been unrealistic. I can remember a couple of years ago when Easts were going to touch Uni up because they had Harry Bennett at flyhalf as well as a bunch of other over hyped schoolboy players against an unknown Uni half pairing of Phipps and Foley. Phipps and Foley were all over them primarily because it was their 2nd year of playing first grade colts together.
That was my logic, so I'm not sure where your glass house call comes from because the last time I checked no one before the weekend was singing Manly's praises and saying that they were specials.
Finally Manly play Randwick next round so it will be interesting to see how they both perform. As most will agree it doesn't follow that because they beat Uni and Uni beat them that will ensure a Manly victory at Coogee.
The competition for the first time in a while seems to be pretty balanced at the moment. Uni will need to send some of their stars back because in previous years they could only play a certain number of grade games before becoming ineligible and from memory that wasn't many.

"My point was that just because a player is dominant in school football dies not necessarily mean he will star immediately in colts. Reasons for this include the weak nature of schoolboy football when in the ISA, GPS and CAS competitions only half of the teams are any good.
Another reason is that they are playing against people who potentially could be 2 years older than them. All this drooling over some of these teams in the last few years has been unrealistic."

Spot on!

Double spot on.

I agree with that, which is why I object to schoolboys going straight to super rugby without being hardened up and tested in colts and grade.

What are the chances of wicks and manly being moved to kierle park? And when would that decision be made?

More than likely if we get any more rain they will move it. The cricket guys and the council are very precious about it's use even for training.

thanks
Just got confirmation game is at kierle park, for those interested.

Great Idea regarding the 20s rep game. There doesn't seem to be any pathway for this age group

Another strong performance from Syd Uni 1st to take out the Rats. Though the Rats had them on the back foot until midway 2nd half. Syd Uni Full back was quite impressive in attack as well as there hooker. Hooker made a few strong runs, possibly a try as well. Anyone know any details on the hooker, reminds me of a polota nau type of player.

The Uni fullback was Stuart Dunbar and the hooker Tolu Latu