Townsville Grammar School matches

U16

On what would be considered a beautiful summers day in England, we played underneath a stunning backdrop on a 27 degrees winters day in Townsville.

The game started at a ferocious pace with TBSHS driving back the Townsville pack in the first scrum of the game. Townsville started to utilise a kicking game which seems to be common practise in the Southern Hemisphere. This provided us with opportunities to turn the ball over and challenge at the line-outs to regain the ball. Townsville found a foot in the game and started to apply some pressure which TBSHS responded well to.

Matt Foster continued in the same vein as his previous games and was dictating a lot of the attacking moves. Jamie Rushworth also continued to impress at full-back as he dealt with constant bombardment from the Aussies boots raining kicks down.

From a penalty TBSHS moved the ball into Ethan Simons who hits his man so hard he nearly knocked him back onto his feet. The ball was then moved wide before the referee brought it back for our penalty. From the resultant penalty we moved the ball well into their 5 metre area before Jack Stewart picked the ball up to dive over the line for the first score. 5-0

Townsville came back hard and TBSHS had to defend with great resolve and determination. Once again they took advantage of a mistake from us in losing our own scrum and a kick over the top was defended well by Luke Maskell before being pushed into touch. Ben Pryor cleared our lines with a good kick but Townsville caught the ball well and ran it back at us drawing a penalty. A quick penalty was taken and we were caught napping like a tourist on a sun lounger which allowed them to score an unconverted try in the corner to draw the scores level. 5-5

The chase from the kick-off was fantastic from TBSHS and straight away swung the momentum in our favour. Another quick penalty was taken by Owen Edwards who ran hard with the ball and gain valuable ground. The pack then joined Owen and we kept possession of the ball in deep in the oppositions half. TBSHS went through several phases of crashing the ball up and drawing more Townsville players into the melee under their own posts. Dillon Twitchett moved the ball well from the back of the ruck into the hands of a flying Arriyan Wells who proved an unstoppable force as he dived over to give us a good lead going into half-time. Matt Foster managed to convert this one to extend our lead. 12-5

The 2nd half started well for TBSHS and from a scrum just inside our half Dillon moved the ball well to Ben Pryor who shifted the ball to Foster, once again he drew the player towards him and released the ball to Jack Stewart. What happened next can only be described as poetry in motion as Jack received the perfect ball in full flight, he threw a shimmy of the hips to sit the defender down before showing him those clean heels that are becoming a trademark, he then had the awareness to score under the posts to allow an easy conversion for Foster. 19-5

Following more good play a rampaging Ethan Simons collected the ball like something that was last seen on the Serengeti to smash the ball over the line for another try. The referee took an age to give the try but this was met with a triumphant fist pump and cry of joy from Ethan. 24-5

Townsville showed great fighting spirit and they came back hard at us. Once again utilising the kick they put us under pressure and sucked us into the corner for a line-out. From this play the moved the ball quickly across the line and a good dummy in the corner allowed the inside-centre to dive over the line to reduce the deficit. 24-10

The game continued to be end to end with some huge hits being put in by both teams but neither team was able to create another clear cut opportunity to score and the match finished 24-10.

MOM - Matt Foster

1st XV

An early highlight before the game even started was the appearance of a drone hovering over the pitch which was taking video footage of the game (this will become available tomorrow).

Once more the pace at the start was quick with both teams looking to get on top. This meant that a few mistakes were made by both teams until TBSHS seemed to settle into a rhythm. Townsville were continuing to persist with a kicking game and TBSHS showed themselves to be adept at returning the kick with interest through Harry Wright. It was from one such return that TBSHS were able to move the ball through the forwards and crash it up towards the line. Bradley Etherington who had been promoted to the 1st XV was the grateful recipient of some good work by Jon Readshaw and Harry Wright as he collected the ball and dived over for the first score underneath the posts for a converted try. 7-0

TBSHS continued to apply the pressure and were turning the ball over regularly in the tackle with Jon Readshaw being the main instigator. From this turned over ball TBSHS were quick to capitalise with Alex Hughes firing the ball out from the rucks into Lilley and the Oliver who released Nathan Gravestock on the wing to duck, dive and dodge his way through their defence to put another score on the board. 12-0

TBSHS had now got the psychological advantage and discovered a freedom to express themselves which made for fantastic viewing. Once again TBSHS work the ball well at the breakdown and were able to move t quickly creating an overlap of our forwards against their backs and when Jack Sharp is at full tilt there was nobody on this field who could stop him. Unfortunately for Townsville the marauding Sharp picked the ball up with 10 metres out and the result was inevitable "TRY TIME"... 17-0

Just before half-time TBSHS continued to pile on the pressure and were once again demonstrating fantastic technical ability as they moved the ball through hands freely. The pressure was building and once again TBSHS found space to call the "Jack & Jill" move which set Angus Learmonth free to score in the corner, another fantastic team move. Dom finally rediscovered his kicking boots and duly converted. 24-0

This brought the half to a close with TBSHS driving home the advantage.

Townsville came out with renewed vigour in the 2nd half and started to play some excellent defensive rugby stopping us early. This continued to be the trend for the game until TBSHS gained a couple of penalties and Dom Lilley made an excellent kick deep into their half. Sadly Ollie Lukies went over the line to score only for the referee to of already halted the game for another penalty by Townsville and once again Dom found touch 8 metres from their try-line. The ball was rumbled in the resultant maul and Daniel De Franca appeared from nowhere like a magician with the ball in his hands to sneak over the line for the converted try. 31-0

Ben Pryor entered the field of play for the 1st XV and made an immediate impact. Ewan Rockell was also starting to see more of the ball and made some fantastic runs to gain lots of ground deep into the Townsville half. From a TBSHS line-out we retained possession of the ball which was then slung out to Ben Pryor who picked an excellent line to receive the ball and like my father at Christmas with the turkey Ben just carved through the opposition before putting the ball down to bring the game to a close as the conversion was missed. 36-0

MOM - Dom Lilley

After the matches Townsville put on a fantastic dinner which was well deserved and the awards were presented for the MOM's from both teams and gave further opportunities to cement friendships with their hosts. A couple of great fixtures and wonderful hosts, thank you TGS!