Results
| Waverley College | 53 | v | 22 | The King's School |
| St Joseph's College 2nds | 19 | v | 48 | St Augustine's College |
| St Pius X College | 21 | v | 24 | The Scots College 3rds |
| Knox Grammar | 34 | v | 29 | St Ignatius College |
| Trinity Grammar School | 12 | v | 5 | St Patrick's Strathfield |
| The Scots College | 45 | v | 22 | Newington College |
| St Stanislaus' College | 17 | v | 0 | St Aloysius College |
| Cranbrook College | 42 | v | 20 | St Gregory's College |
St. Joseph’s College 1st XV v Oakhill College 1st XV
36 - 17
By Oscar Nowak Allcorn, Oakhill Y10 Student & Waratah’s Junior Reporter
Photos courtesy of Michael Remaili
The final score of 36 - 17 did not reflect the tough game played. While St. Joseph’s College claimed victory, Oakhill did put up a very good fight against Joey’s, looking dangerously close to being in front of them at various times throughout the game.
Sydney’s early cold snap was definitely felt by both the spectators and the players, with what felt like arctic wind blasts making the game of rugby a difficult one to play particularly in the lineouts.
Oakhill’s start was intense and fueled with determination and passion to meet all challenges from Joey’s head on. For the first 8 minutes of the game Oakhill kept Joey’s in their own half eager to put the first points up on the board, until Joey’s winger Oscar Jorgensen made a break along the sideline putting Joey’s into Oakhill’s half.
Sloppy play was seen throughout the first 15 minutes of the game with 8 knock ons and 4 penalties conceded by both teams. One of the scrums was 5 meters from Oakhill’s tryline. Oakhill’s backline defence was good and stopped Joey’s from scoring off one of their backline plays. But after 5 phases of the ball in the breakdown they went towards the blindside giving the ball to fullback Samuel Taber who stepped 2 Oakhill players and went over the line.
Oakhill was very good with the ball but Joey’s defence was on point and when Oakhill made an error they capitalized on it very quickly.
Soon after, Joey’s had a lineout 5 meters out from their tryline. The lineout was won by Joey’s and taken down into a maul. A big push by Oakhill in the maul wasn’t strong enough to stop Joey’s from scoring. Joey’s James Woods was the try scorer. His try was converted successfully by Joey Fowler.
The game intensified, the teams heated up, resulting in a yellow card being given to Joey’s number 8 Darcy Fogarty for lifting a player above the horizontal in the ruck. Oakhill used this yellow card to their advantage. Oakhill had a scrum their feed 20 meters from the tryline. Oakhill’s center Michael Abdow made a good line break but was just short of scoring but his other center Domenico De Stradis picked the ball off the back of the ruck and scored. The conversion was successful by Brae Harris.
The first half saw some very good individual effort from both teams. We had some great tackles by Oakhill’s centre Domenico De Stradis, Patrick Spence, Michael Abdow, Jett Peters and Joey’s winger Oscar Jorgensen, Henry Roberts and more.
The half time score was 12 - 7 St. Joseph's way.
Joeys started the second half very strong, scoring within minutes. Oakhill conceded a very costly penalty 15 meters out from their own tryline. 5 phases after the penalty, Joey’s passed the ball all the way towards the winger who had no-one in front of him and Rhys Downs scored untouched in the corner. The try was converted by Joey's number 10 Joey Fowler.
Oakhill soon got their head back into the game with a great run along the sideline by winger Shayan Dolatshahi sprinting 60m. Soon after, Oakhill found a great opportunity. Oakhill’s back grubber kicked the ball towards the tryline. The ball was chased down by Oakhill’s Domenico De Stradis, he dove over the ball but the referee called it a knock-on. Oakhill soon got the ball back. Oakhill had a scrum 30 meters from the tryline. Number 8 Sam Pickard grabbed the ball from the back of the scrum and passed it to scrum-half Finn Watkins. Watkins ran 10 meters dragging in Joey’s winger before passing the ball to Oakhill’s winger Shayan Dolatshahi and he scored in the corner. The conversion was missed by Brae Harris which made the score 19 - 12.
Soon after Oakhill was conceding a lot of penalties. Unfortunately for Oakhill the referee had enough of giving penalties away, number 7 Jett Peters was yellow carded for ‘repeated infringements’. Joey’s turned this yellow card to their advantage. They had a lineout 5 meters from the tryline. They took the ball from the lineout into a maul and Joey’s captain Patrick Burns scored.
Oakhill’s lock Angus Griffin made a fantastic interception running for 10 meters before he grubber kicked the ball. Oakhill’s scrum-half Finn Watkins chased the ball and picked it up but was soon tackled by the fullback Samual Taber and was left isolated, giving Joey’s an opportunity to get the ball back.
The game was into the last 15 minutes and Joey’s were deep into Oakhill’s half. Jack O’Keefe made a great try-saving tackle but his effort wasn’t good enough to stop a try 30 seconds later where Joey’s fullback Samuel Taber stepped 2 players and scored the try in the corner of the field.
The score was sitting on 31 - 12 and Oakhill wanted to get some points back on the board. Oakhill got very close to the tryline and found an opportunity. Oakhill’s ruck was on one corner of the field and on the opposite corner Oakhill’s winger Brae Harriss had no one marking him. Oakhill’s backs passed the ball all the way to the winger and Brae Harriss scored in the corner of the field. Harriss was not able to convert his own try which made the score 31 - 17.
There was very little time left in the game and the wind made it extremely hard for both teams to throw the ball straight in the lineout.
Joey’s had passed the ball to its winger Oscar Jorgensen and he sprinited 20 meters and scored in the corner to finish the game.
The final score was 36 - 17 St. Joseph’s victory. Oakhill awarded best forward to number one Jack Barrett and best back to center Jonathan Chan.
Next week Oakhill will be hosting Waverly and Joey’s will play Scots in the final rounds of trials.
