Thank you for these scores. They provide a cross check for the relative strengths of TAS and High playing a Sydney school.
In a very early match against Kinross TAS suffered some heavy defeats. Firsts Kinross 43-12, Seconds Kinross 66-0, under `16s a Kinross victory score not known, First girls Kinross 19-0. The presence of girls rugby is having some interesting effects. Most TAS games against coed schools now included both genders. With these results I wondered about the strength of TAS this year.
Against High in what was in fact the first round of the GPS thirds comp, I know that the full comp hasn't started yet, TAS won 22-3 placing TAS as the temporary comp leader on points! While High wasn't disgraced, I thought that TAS was significantly the better team. TAS actually won all the rugby matches. Of these I watched the 16s, thirds, seconds and firsts. I wasn't impresses by the 16s on either side, although TAS won well. It was nice to see the thirds who, while a smaller and younger team, was pretty smart. I have always thought of the thirds as a Cinderella team struggling to get matches. TAS once had three open teams below the top two, but it's hard to attract and motivate if you don't have anyone to play. The TAS seconds, my old team, were much better than I expected, outclassing High. Bottom line is that TAS has some depth this year.
Overall, High still just won the long-running Harris and Hanlon cup across a number of sports. My congratulations. Interestingly, TAS won the open soccer which made me wonder how TAS might go in the GPS competition.
Thinking about this post led me to look at TAS sport more broadly. There has been a lot of rugby activity, far more than I had realised, but there is more competition from other sports offering more competitive options. Rugby is holding its own for the moment in part because TAS provides so much infrastructure. I might write something on all this because reading the G&G posts makes me feel that I live in very different sporting world.
While I appreciate the thoughtful analysis of TAS's rugby performance and accept that it is far superior to the High rugby program, it is important to acknowledge a broader context when evaluating both TAS and High’s overall sporting strength to which I will provide. High is historically known to not bring its strongest sides in many sports to the Harris and Hannon Cup outside of Rugby (notoriously the weakest sport of high in recent history)—especially in early-season or non-premiership fixtures such as those in tennis, volleyball, basketball, or football, attributed to 2 main reasons:
1. There are far more paramount games which take place simultaneously to the cup
2. They are too busy studying or cannot be bothered to trek it up 7 hours to Armidale
Though closely contested each year, this is one of the biggest misconceptions of the annual rivalry between TAS and High: The fact SBHS sport heavily weakened sides it is unfeasible to be taken as an indicative benchmark of the ability of TAS to compete with the wider range of AAGPS schools.
As an illustrative reference for your consideration: None of the first grade players of volleyball, tennis or football and only a handful of basketballers (Henry Lau never attended or it would be over for TAS) attended the 2 day trip. Most notably I overheard that Sydney Boys had sent their mighty 4th grade football side up (it happens every year) led by captains Ryan Kirkland and Clinton Chau to face the 1st grade TAS side coming narrowly close to victory.
So to answer your mental quandary: this is spell-bindingly tight game may even prove the limitations of the TAS strength of side. If a fourth-grade High side—devoid of its top-tier athletes like DDD, Aiden Mcmanus and newly appointed GPS combined captain Liam Nottage—can push TAS’s premier team to the brink, it suggests not parity with stronger GPS programs, but a significant gap. When full-strength squads are fielded, particularly in the premiership season, TAS would likely struggle to remain competitive across several codes.
Whilst, Armidale rugby may seemingly always best that of High (although High have made significant improvements over the past few years, reflected in both the narrowing margin of score and performance), the wider range of sports High as I have stated above should inherently be far superior, even winning some games with weakened sides.
Although, the Harris and Hannon Cup, continues to be an enjoyable experience for the High boy's who are not often granted such entertaining sporting trips like their private school counterparts in the AAGPS who are blessed with the opportunity to play in Europe, the experience endures as one of great memories thanks to the hospitality of the TAS school rather than an effective measure of TAS's sporting prowess to other AAGPS schools.