The Waverley Trinity game was a very physically tough affair .a scrappy stop-start game but entertaining nevertheless. A lot of penalties given . the penalty count must have been at least 3 to 1 against Waverley.
From a CAS perspective, a pleasing feature of the game were the performances of the Year 12 players from both schools. Players who have had 1st XV experience in the previous 2 or 3 years.
From Trinity:
1 Wayland is a powerhouse and is Trinity's answer to a McLennan replacement.
6 Rasch was his usual dominant self at the lineout and had a strong game in attack and defence.
12 Morris was a handful with ball in hand and is a punishing defender. Had a good battle with Fuller.
15 Longville had limited opportunities but looked fast and dangerous every time he ran with the ball.
From Waverley:
11 Mohi had limited opportunities but still scored 2 tries and showed his skill and speed.
9 Jordan is a tough, running style of scrum half and wasn't afraid to mix it up with the forwards. Put in a nice cross field kick for Mohi catch on the full and score.
12 Fuller made several line breaks .. looked dangerous with the ball and defended strongly.
13 Yoannidis made a big break to score the first try and very strong in defence.
7 O'Sullivan never stopped working in defence and attack and was rarely far away from the ball.
The two number 8s: Rogers-Smith from Waverley and Trinity's Tuitavake both had big games.
The young Trinity winger 14 Hollingworth-Dessent is one to watch. He's not only fast, he's tough and did a good job containing Waverley's Mohi.
Waverley wont get away with giving so many penalties away next week against Knox.
For mine, 6, 15 and 1 were the pick of Trinity and I would probably say that 30-13 flattered the men in green even though they toiled valiantly all day. Their tries came from a quick tap, punt downfield and footrace and the last play of the day which is reflective of the dominance of Waverley at Trinity's ground. Waverley by contrast are adventurous and left points on the field today as a consequence of chancing their arm. Trinity are committed but lack much in the way of creativity. Waverley got hammered in the penalty count as well, yet still dominated most areas which says much about the two sides' individual skills.
Trinity defend well, are committed but don't have that x factor to beat the better teams. Waverley by contrast appear to be gelling as a team. None of them are prefect but they play as a team and the comraderie that marks a good team is apparent. That's not to say that they will beat Knox, but I am always alert to the motivating factor of a good little team of have-nots being sufficient sometimes to beat the physically larger team of have-everythings.
As I've said before, when you pour lots of resources into schoolboy rugby you expect to win - the ultimate underperformance is to lose to an under resourced team who plays better. So on the upper North Shore next week it will be interesting to see whether the corporates of Knox can beat the socialists of Waverley. On paper Knox has the cattle and the resources to smash all-comers, but this Waverley team has gelled and it will be a classic contest next week. As the IRA said to the British government - you have to be lucky every time; we only have to be lucky once. Bring it on.
