Injuries played a key role in the preparation this week, with three back rowers unavailable and a centre stepping up to first grade to cover an injury. The team had a different look about it, but we were still confident that we’d be able to beat the competition front runners.

The warm up was unfortunately disrupted with a number of players running late due to traffic and work commitments, which meant the team wasn’t as switched on as we would have liked going into the game. An early try to Colleagues from a five metre driving maul allowed them to take a 5-0 lead. The team was not playing to the structure we trained in both attack and defence, which allowed the opposition to easily shut down the majority of our attacking raids. Two further tries were scored out wide without reply, taking the half time score to 17-0.

Knowing that our first half play did not reflect how we trained or played over the last few weeks, the team found some structure and started to build phases early into the second half. Unfortunately Colleagues were able to score another try before we were able to assert some dominance in territory and possession. The last thirty minutes of the second half could not have looked more different from the first half as the team built phase after phase and came close to scoring on a number of occasions, while stopping Colleagues from entering our half. Scrum half Gavin Taylor scored a great try in the corner after multiple phases in the lead up. Colleagues defended well for the rest of the match and we couldn’t cross the line again, eventually going down 22-7.

Individually, Dave Shaw and Josh Hayward worked tirelessly all day, while Rabeeh Karaali stood up in both defence and attack, where he regularly broke the first tackle. Captain and fly-half Luke Fletcher directed the team well and never missed a tackle all day.

While the game didn’t go as we had planned, the effort the team put in after being down by four tries really showed the character of the team and bodes well for the rest of the season. We take on Balmain at Leichhardt next week and we aren’t expecting the game to be any easier than it was this week.

Best & Fairest

3 – Luke Fletcher #10

2 – Rabeeh Karaali #7

1 – Dave Shaw #6, Josh Hayward #12