Rugby Union
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
ARMIDALE produced a staunch defensive effort and St Alberts a late burst to win their season-opening New England competition encounters on Saturday.
At Moran Oval the Blues were too good for Robb, winning their grand final rematch 24-5.
John Roberts sealed the win for the defending champions with about 10 minutes to go following a typical bulldozing run from Mike TeMoana, after tries either side of half-time to Blaine Moore and Anthony Piddington had seen them seize control of the game.
Across town at Bellevue Oval the Baa Baas and Albies produced a high-scoring affair with Albies running out 48-30 victors.
“It was a pretty good game,” Albies coach Tom Newsome said.
“Both sides had their moments.”
The game was in the balance until deep into the second half.
“We got away with it in the last 10,” Newsome said.
“It was reasonably close until then.”
There was nothing splitting them at half-time with both sides crossing for two converted tries and booting a penalty to go into the break at 17-apiece.
“Our guys played pretty well,” Newsome said.
The only real mark against them was that they let Baa Baas back into the game when they could have shut the door on their opponents.
“We let Baa Baas back into the it with a lot of errors and penalties,” he said.
Other than that it was a good performance, especially for their first game.
They were particularly strong out wide with outside centre Jacob Booby and Dan Sweeney the beneficiaries of some great lead-up play and they cut the defence apart.
“They had a lot of support around them to put them into gaps,” Newsome said.
That was made possible by the work of the forwards.
“Our forwards played really well,” Newsome said.
“The set piece was good. We stole a couple of tight heads.
“(And) We won all our lineout ball.”
“That helps. We had a solid foundation.”
They were also without second row generals Ollie Bartlett and Angus Howard
Booby topped the points closely followed by Sweeney while loosehead prop Charlie French picked up the one.
In a story not to dissimilar to last season, Baas co-coach Sam Piddington, said Albies got on top of them late with their fitness.
“We were a bit lazy in defence the last 10 minutes,” Piddington said.
It’s something they’ve focused on in the pre-season to address but being early in the season isn’t quite there yet.
Piddington was generally happy with how they played.
“I thought our attack was good.
“We’ve got some structure going for the start of the season,” he said.
They just missed a few too many tackles.
In saying that, Albies backline was red-hot, he said.
Second rower Cody Graham, winger Adam Burt and debutants Ben Norton and Tom Waugh were among their best.