Students Edge Beasts In Final Thriller

Henderson Shield 3rd Grade Match Report: By Paul Cook

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Sydney University have claimed their first 3rd Grade title in four years, holding out a spirited Eastern Suburbs side 21-17 to lift the Henderson Shield in a hugely exciting encounter. After blasting out to a 15-0 lead in the first 15 minutes, the Students looked set to rack up a landslide victory, however, the Beasts regrouped to dominate proceedings either side of half-time with some eye catching rugby and turned the game around to edge ahead 17-15.

Just as they appeared to have built a platform from which to go on with the job, ill discipline cursed the Beasts and Uni fly-half Jack Macklin punished them with two penalties midway through the second half that proved to be the difference. Varsity captain Adam Campbell paid tribute to their opponents performance and praised his team mates determination to get the job done:

“It was pretty tough. They threw everything at us and luckily enough we came away with it but we had some faith in the boys that we could hold out and we did.”

Having fallen at this stage last season, Easts would have been keen to come out firing and try to banish the demons of that loss to Randwick 12 months ago but facing the Minor Premiers was always going to be a tough ask and Uni started the game in no mood to be trifled with.

They’d already had a try disallowed for a foot in touch in the opening 5 minutes before Macklin slotted home a penalty to kick start the scoreboard. However, Easts’ respite was to be short lived as minutes later, Uni went wide off a line out just outside the red zone and winger Josh Koops was the right man in the right place to cross and leave Macklin to slot expertly from the angle to open up a 10pt margin.

Easts weren’t necessarily playing poorly, it was more a case of everything they tried not quite coming off while everything the Students touched turned to gold and they struck again five minutes later with clinical execution to extend their advantage. An overlap down the right flank saw Levi Dodd pick up neatly off his feet to give former 1st Grader and USA Sevens representative Nick Edwards the chance to dot down acrobatically in the corner.

Jeremy Raftos - www.seiserphotography.com

The angle was too tight for Macklin this time but with Uni scoring at almost a point a minute and growing in confidence with every play, the writing appeared to be on the wall for Easts. The Students were using the width of the field to stretch their opponents defensive line while the Beasts in turn were playing more conservatively and using the capable boot of fly-half Jeremy Raftos to play for field position.

However, when they did eventually break their duck, it proved to be the lifting of a heavy load from their shoulders. A Sam Devlin penalty was a small step on the scoreboard but a giant leap psychologically as Easts started to throw off the shackles and chance their arm before the break.

Devlin had another opportunity to narrow the gap after the siren when an under fire Uni were pinged for not rolling away but the full-back pushed his effort wide leaving them with a 12pt deficit but much momentum with which to carry into the second half.

The break certainly did little to dull their attacking intent but a five pointer was what was really required to cement the comeback and two in four minutes turned the game on its head. Both came from speedster Nick Healey, the first a 50 metre streak into space down the left flank before a step and a fend to the posts, the second as he ran a great line straight onto a measured offload from Raftos and scorched through to the chalk.

Having already experienced two tight games against the same opposition in the regular season, Uni joint head coach Peter Playford was not surprised by Easts fightback:

“I thought they played really well. I thought we had them under the pump early in the half but I knew it had to come. It’s a Grand Final, nothing ever goes to script and you rarely roll out to forty or fifty.”

Devlin converted both scores to put the Beasts in the lead and if they’d been able to maintain such a high level of play, it would have been hard to see Uni finding a way back into the game but as their attacking hurricane became slowly downgraded, the Minor Premiers started to reassert themselves, looking to play at the other end of the field and force mistakes.

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The concerted pressure eventually told with the concession of consecutive penalties and Easts could only have themselves to blame after ignoring the referees warnings. The second penalty was given for ‘playing the ball on the ground’ despite been spoken to for the same offence at the previous ruck.

Macklin punished them for both indiscretions to make it 21-17 and Easts had it all to do once again. They increasingly threw caution to the wind as the clock ticked down, piling tired bodies forward and after the siren had sounded with the Beasts tapping every accrued penalty to try and smash through the wall of Uni defenders, a last desperate dive for the line looked to have got them home.

However, the referee was right on the spot, adjudged the ball to have been held up and promptly called an end to proceedings. While Uni celebrated their hard fought victory, the Beasts sat motionless and inconsolable but both sides should take great credit for their enterprise in what was a terrific advert for 3rd Grade rugby.

Sydney University 21 (Josh Koops, Nick Edwards tries; Jack Macklin 3 pens, con) d Eastern Suburbs 17 (Nick Healey 2 tries; Sam Devlin 2 cons, pen) at Concord Oval. HT: Sydney University 15-3. Referee: William Houston