I happened to be at Tennyson and observed this game as the person showing me around mentioned that this was a going to be a great game and the Nudgee 14a team were the standout team in GPS.I actually hadn't seen either of these teams play before, however I thought Nudgee had some big boys in their team and some very strong ball carriers, apart from this I don't think there was that much difference between the teams - GT gave up a soft try from a penalty - But that GT side looked very well drilled as did Nudgee and were unlucky on a couple of occasions - definitely a lot of talent on display
It sounded like that NV v GT 14A game on Saturday was a cracker and played at an extremely high standard. I spoke to people with an interest from both sides and even a neutral observer or two the day after the game and it is always funny to hear the different perspectives on the same match.
Believe it or not, both sides seem frustrated with the refereeing. Those without an axe to grind said at times the ref did not let the game flow and the pea was blown out of the whistle at stages, but they thought the penalties were warranted for both sides.
Thought I would amalgamate the thoughts and views for a mini match report as it describes one of the closest games for one of the mostly highly touted under age teams in Qld on this forum.
The GT flyhalf and centres really stood up in defense and all but shut down the Nudgee centres and ball runners during the game. That was even after the GT in-centre was knocked out at half time and the substitute player also stood up. It was the best defensive wall NC had encountered this year.
It was knock em down, drag em out rugby. It was an extremely tight first half. GT had the NC forward pack fairly well covered across the park (except for scrum) and were probably better technically at the rucks and mauls but battled the size, strength and mobility of the NC forwards. NC also had the large GT ball playing forward covered throughout the game with two or three players crunching him almost every time. But then NC struggled on the GT kick returns with the GT full back constantly beating first and second tacklers.
The first try by NC with only a couple of minutes to go in the first half came from very good multiple phase ball that sucked in the GT backs into the breakdown and left an overlap out wide from 40m out.
In second half, the soft NC try came from a change in NC tactics with flyhalf running the ball himself off a penalty rather than usual pass to (the well marked) ball player outside him and over he went untouched.
GT did not drop their heads and continued to play strongly. Some of the much touted NC players went a bit missing compared to their previous games and it was surmised that they were not used to the physicality being thrown at them for a change and they started to do dumb things around the breakdown from the pressure and got a stream of penalties and finally a yellow card against them.
The GT open flanker started to make some good quick yards from the breakdown as the NC forwards tired and the GT try also came from a change in tactics with the usual ball runner going decoy and drawing defense away from where the ball went.
The last try from NC came from quick play and interchange between the winger and flanker flying down the left wing to put the game beyond doubt.
As said in an earlier post, after the game there were a lot of tired and sore boys from both teams, who then had to back up and play club finals the next day