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Day 1 Australian School Championship
A visit by the Qantas Wallabies highlighted an entertaining first day’s competition at the Australian Schoolboys Championship at Knox College in Sydney.
The Wallabies trained in the morning in front of an enthralled audience of representative schoolboys from across Australia before the young players themselves hit the field in the afternoon to try and replicate their heroes.
In the opening non-competition match NSW II defeated Combined States, a selection of the best players from Western Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia, 47 – 10 with Prariewood High School’s Josh Tanuvassa crossing for two tries.
In the second match, a powerful Queensland I line up, featuring Wallabies scrumhalf Will Genia’s younger brother, Nigel, defeated ACT 69 – 7, after leading 38-0 at half time.
Southport School’s Simon Morahan and Chris Sautia from Brisbane State High Scholl both crossed for doubles for the young Maroons while for ACT St Edmunds College’s Jake Holland hit the line at pace and was rewarded with the side’s only try.
In the hard fought final match of the day NSW I overcame stern resistance from Queensland II with Damien Cooke from Illawarra Sports High School scoring two tries and landing a conversion and Tom Kingston from St Aloysius also scoring two five-pointers.
In tomorrow’s matches, also at Knox College in Wahroonga, Queensland II meet Queensland I at 11am followed by NSW 1 vs Combined States at 1pm and NSW II meeting ACT in what should be a tight contest at 3pm.
Australian Schoolboys Championships
Results Day 1
Game 1 – non Comp
NSW II 47 (Zack Fell, Nick Curtis, John Tanuvassa 2, Tyson Frizell tries, Lim Walker try, 4 Con, 3 Pen) defeated Combined States 10 (Ray Buchannan, Keith Wicks tries)
Game 2 – Pool B
Queensland I 69 (Simon Morahan 2, Chris Sautia 2, Luke Beauchamp, James May, Jordan Turapou, Kimami Situata, Ruka Hanlon, Liam Gill tries Rohan Saifoloi 1 try, 7 Con) defeated ACT 7 (Jake Holland, Billy Chaulker Con)
Game 3 – Pool A
New South Wales I 22 (Damien Cook 2 tries 1 con, Tom Kingston 2 tries) defeated Queensland II 10 (Junior Rasolea try, Mitchell Felesman 1 con 1 PG)
Day 2
Big upset today...
For the second year in a row Combined States pulled off a major upset at the Australian Schools Championship when they defeated the might of NSW Schoolboy Rugby 20-15 at Knox College on Sydney’s North Shore today.
Combined States are made up of the best young schoolboy players from the lesser known Rugby states and territories – Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory - but on the day they were too good for the elite of the GPS, CHS and CAS competitions.
Aquinas College and Canning Vale SHS in Western Australia are hardly household names in schoolboy Rugby but their students scored the points that overcame the best that famed Rugby nurseries like Scots, Kings and Joeys could put on the park.
Flanker Jack de Guingand, from Victorian Schools’ powerhouse St Kevin’s College, and Nathan Oakley from Canning Vale scored tries for Combined States while Aquinas flyhalf Kyle Godwin was accurate with the boot landing two conversions and the same number of penalty goals.
For NSW I, Kings School winger Scott Ferris and Scots College fullback Jacob Woodhouse notched five pointers while Marcus Heather from Endeavour Sports High School put over one conversion and a penalty goal.
The young sky blues had their chances late in the game but poor decisions and resilient defence from Combined States saw the outsiders hold on
NSW I must now rely on Queensland II beating Combined States on Saturday if they are to play in next Monday’s final, while Combined States are now more than realistic final contenders from Pool A.
In the day’s other games last year’s winners Queensland I warmed up for the crucial Pool B clash with NSW II on Saturday with a comfortable 47-7 victory over Queensland II in the non-competition match.
St Joseph’s Nudgee College winger Kimani Situata marked himself as a star of the future racing over for a quartet of tries for Queensland I while St Peters winger George Moresu was Queensland II’s lone tryscorer.
NSW II also kept themselves in the hunt for a finals berth with a gritty 15-7 victory over ACT with St Dominic’s College outside centre Tevita Felikitau-Fetuani crossing for a try along with Kiama High School fullback Ethan Ford.
The ACT’s points were all scored by one school – Erindale College, with a try to hooker Trent Hoscher and a conversion from fullback Brendan Taueki. But with two losses from two games the young Brumbies hopes of a final place are over.
There is a rest day tomorrow, when the young players will receive career and vocational guidance from expert tutors, before Day 3’s competition at Knox College on Saturday.
Australian Schools Championship Day 2
Results
Game 4
Queensland I 47 (Kimumi Situata 4, Simon Morahan, Chris Sautia, Joel Turaga tries, Cayden Matheaere 6 con) defeated Queensland II 7 (George Morseu try, Dion Taumata con)
Game 5
Combined States 20 (Jack De Guingand, Nathan Oakley tries, Kyle Godwin 2 con 2 PG) defeated New South Wales I 15 (Scott Ferris, Jacob Woodhouse tries, Marcus Heather 1 con, 1 PG)
Game 6
New South Wales II 15 (Tevita Felikitau-Fetuani, Ethan Ford tries, Liam Walker con, PG) defeated ACT 7 (Trent Hoscher try, Brendan Taueki con)
POOL TABLES AFTER DAY 2
POOL A
NSW I – 6
Combined States – 4
Queensland II – 0
POOL B
Queensland I - 5
NSW II - 4
ACT – 0
Draw for Day 3 - Saturday July 11
Knox College, Pacific Highway, Wahroonga
11:00 am NSW I v ACT (Non-competition)
1:00 pm Queensland II v Combined States
3:00 pm Queensland I v NSW II[COLOR="Silver"]
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