Armidale scored two late tries to inflict some first round blues on Robb College, while St Albert’s kicked off their premiership defence in winning style when the New England competition got underway on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Both games were hard-fought tussles with Albies getting over a spirited Glen Innes/Guyra 29-10 and the Blues escaping with the points 33-25.
Blues coach Luke Stephen lauded the character his side showed, trailing by four with five minutes remaining and a player in the bin.
Alex Barrett put them in front with about three minutes to go, Brennan Czinner then scoring on full-time to seal the result.
It was a see-sawing encounter with Robb leading 10-7 at half-time. The Blues then got out to 21-13 before the students reclaimed the advantage 25-21.
Stephen was particularly impressed with their defence.
“We didn’t have much ball for the first 20 minutes and pretty much had to tackle the whole time,” he said.
They were twice down a man, but on both occasions managed to score points.
“To score 19 points when we were a man down is testament to the boys and their patience,” Stephen said.
He said the backs were quick and made the most of their opportunities and when they did kick they got a good kick-chase which enabled them to generate pressure and field position.
Playing at breakaway, Barrett and centre Samson Bai were their best.
The other game was moved to Alcatraz after Bellevue Oval was closed and saw the GhostStags take it to the premiers.
They led for a large portion of the first half, and are going to be quite formidable Albies co-coach Chris Kelly predicted.
“We played well but we were just very patchy,” Kelly said. “The execution at the final point was not quite where it needed to be.”
He said in the first half they let the GhostStags dictate and got caught playing the game they wanted them to.
“We played reasonably well into their hands. We were trying to play 10-man rugby,” he said.
“We changed our tactics a bit late in the first half and got on the board.”
They then ran away with it in the second half.
“We’ll be better for the hit-out,” Kelly said.
“A lot of the guys weren’t in the best condition they could be but played large patches of the game.”
They also had a lot of new faces.
One of those was half-back Will Archer.
He shared the one point with fullback Alex Pay.
Stepping up from second grade, second rower Gus Smith was adjudged their best with prop Will Turner picking up the two points.
