The students’ strikepower, particularly in the backs, was too much for the Baa Baas to  handle, with five-eighth James Reynolds turning in a brilliant performance.

“(James) Reynolds had a big game. He scored three tries and set one up,” Albies coach Tom Newsome said.

He had missed the semi-final against the Blues with injury and was back to his best.

“Sides tend to try to get up quick on us to close down our outside backs,” Newsome said.

“That creates room for Reynolds.”

Newsome felt the inside backs was probably where they got over the top of them.

“It was a battle in the pigs,” he said.

He was really happy with what he saw from his side, especially the way they executed the game plan.

“The boys were able to put phases together, which they’ve struggled a fair bit with lately,” he said.

That made a big difference, and meant they were able to actually build some pressure.

They weren’t able to do that against the Blues, simply because they had no ball.

Newsome thought if they could rectify that and win their share of the ball on Saturday they should get the result.

It wasn’t as one-sided as the scoreline might suggest though. 

“We couldn’t quite get away from them until the end,” Newsome said.

Not that he really ever felt too worried. 

The only real scare they had was early in the second half when they got back to within six.

“They were right in the game then,” he said.

“But we were able to kick away.”

As well as Reynolds they also got second-rower Gus Howard back.

He made a big difference to their lineout.

Ollie Bartlett also had a big game, moving back into the second row.

They changed his role a bit, Newsome said, using him as a ball runner and go-forward guy.

Sinclair Hinton was also a strong performer at eight.

Baa Baas were a bit better than against Robb the week before but were just “a bit outclassed”, co-coach Brett Monley said.

“They played some really good running rugby,” he said.

They didn’t help themselves with some poor discipline.

“We scored some good tries when we put phases together but our downfall was too many penalties,” Monley said. 

You just can’t do that in semi-finals.

They also hung off Reynolds too much and he made them pay.

Mitch Cooper scored two tries and was outstanding for them.

Dom Bower also tried hard.

Monley was upbeat about the season despite the loss.

“We had a great season. We won eight of our last 10,” he said. “And we went one better than last year.”