Sydney Juniors Match

Sydney Juniors

This was the 2nd match of the tour and was always going to be a tough test as we were informed that the Sydney Juniors were a representative team made up of the best club players in the whole of Sydney which to put in context is the equivalent of playing for South of England.

2nd XV

Following a competitive first 10 minutes Matt Foster put a good kick chase into their 22 and forced a mistake resulting in a scrum. From the resulting scrum a mistake in the backs led to a turnover ball which the Juniors took advantage of and ran in the first try of the game as we got an insight into the speed of their backs. 0-5

This was then followed up with another quick try from the kick-off when the Juniors ran over a couple of tackles before scoring under the posts before successfully converting. 0-12

The physical size difference between the two teams is making life difficult for TBSHS as its taking two of us to take down their players. The 13 is causing us problems and has run over his second try of the game before the conversion was missed. 0-17

TBSHS are starting to learn that they need to tackle lower as they are being handed-off with relative ease and a last ditch tackle from Matt Foster can't prevent another unconverted score from Juniors. 0-22

Dan Cotton has suddenly sprung to life made some fantastic tackles. Following a Juniors line out we made life very difficult for them to get the ball out of the maul with Bailey Grant driving through the maul. A mistake as they passed the ball down the line was capitalised on by Dylan Twitchett who raced through the gap to score under the posts to ensure the conversion was made. 7-22

Following some good exchanges of possession TBSHS gained several penalties which they used to kick for touch. After a couple of well drilled line-outs unfortunately Juniors regained possession and made this pay with a few quick passes and a good running line from the outside centre allowed a break through our line and a converted score under the posts. 7-29

The Juniors then showed good awareness from the backs and broke through our line to score once more before converting successfully. 7-36

Matt Foster received a kick and ran it straight back at them with a good dummy to wrong foot 3 of them before being tackled. The ball shot out the side of the ruck which Luke Maskell pounced upon with a fantastic 1 handed pick-up which allowed him to out pace the Juniors to score in the corner. 12-36

Another fantastic run by Bradley Etherington gained us a lot of ground and resulted in another penalty. We opted to run the penalty and gained a further 10 metres to be right on their try line. Unfortunately a very aggressive ruck from the Juniors turned the ball over and off they went on the offensive. Jamie Rushworth as the last line of defence made a fantastic tackle and managed to turn the ball over. 

TBSHS were certainly having their fair share of the game now and were drawing penalties on such a regular basis that the referee went to his pocket to sin-bin one of the Juniors players for persistent foul play. 

However, following some clever play by Matt Foster which saw him chip the ball over and chase before it rolled out the in goal area to give Juniors the option of a scrum or drop-out. They took the scrum and the inside centre showed some good pace and endurance to run the length of the pitch to score under the posts despite last ditch tackles from Dan Cotton and Cameron Weekes. 12-43

The restart was caught by the Juniors and run back down the pitch recycling well as they went into tackles, this led to a ruck on the 22 which they called a 'strike' ball and a massive overload was evident on the wing as the ball was fired down their line and left Cameron no chance to defend against so many and a converted try was the result of that move. 12-50

Tiredness started to show a little and a couple of mistakes led to the 13 being left on his own to receive a long looping pass to convert in the corner before being converted as the last play of the game. Leaving the final score 12-57 but the second half was very competitive and a close affair for a long period of time.

1st XV

Following the start TBSHS had Juniors pinned back in their own half for the 1st 5 minutes of the game. The Juniors had some big guys playing for them again and it was drawing several of our players in to make the challenges. A break from the Juniors saw them get out of their 22 and finally stopped by a good tackle from Harry Wright 15 metres from our try line. The Juniors then went through several phases of play as our defence stood strong before they finally broke us down to score a converted try. 0-7

We then demonstrated some fantastic free flowing rugby as we moved the ball quickly through hands and out to Ollie Fortune on the wing who was having some success against his opposite number.

It took a further 20 minutes for the Juniors to break us down and we had chances from penalties but were unable to win our own line-outs. The Juniors the scored their 2nd try following a well worked line-out and maul which set-up the opportune for them to drive the ball over the line for an unconverted try. 0-12

Following more good play by TBSHS after the break the Juniors got a lucky bounce of the ball from our line-out and some powerful running set-up the Juniors to score in the corner but miss the conversion. 0-17

TBSHS ran the ball straight down to the Juniors 22 and were awarded a scrum after a clever kick was knocked on. Alex Hughes then picked up from the scrum and dived over the line to get TBSHS on the board. 5-17

The Juniors came back strong and kicked for touch. The line out was won and they drove the ball over for another unconverted try. 5-22

TBSHS started to play some fantastic rugby and were moving the ball well through hands. When the ball was turned over Jimmy Dalton made a huge hit and won the ball back for TBSHS. Harry Wright was having a fantastic game at fullback and made some good ground with ball in hand whilst dictating with his boot as well. The Juniors started to apply more pressure and we did well to hold them up over the try line but could do nothing from the scrum when they moved the ball quickly to the winger who went over in the corner. 5-27

The match finished 5-27 but there were some fantastic individual performances to complement a superb team effort which came from Jack Sharp who was recognised by the opposition as man of the match, Harry Wright who was also identified as have an excellent game alongside Jon Readshaw, Alex Hughes, Harry Heywood kicked superbly and Angus Learmonth.

MOM - Jack Sharp & Harry Wright

MOM - Matt Foster