However, there’s a little twist. Fourth grade will be kicking off at 3pm which is the same time as first grade.

Kick off times:

1:00 Third Grade
2:00 Second Grade
3:00 First Grade AND Fourth Grade

As always ensure you’re there in plenty of time. And remember, Saturday week against Merrylands we’re playing at Beauchamp Oval in Chatswood. After that game there will be a mandatory court session in the Orchard. Be there.

It’s been a long time since Brothers have fielded a fifth grade senior side.
As the colts had a bye this week, it was a good oppportunity to get a Halligan cup game in and keep the young bucks from getting rusty.
Saturday came around and it was a mixed bag of experience and youth that ran onto the pitch for fifth grade.
As to be expected, it was a bit of a scrappy first half as the new look team struggled for consistency and patterns.
As our size and experience advantage in the forwards (that included utility player Dave Bullard in an unfamiliar position at loose head!) came to bear, we started to pull away in the second half. This was emphasized when our new loose head prop got carried away with his new front row position and nearly cut an Epping back in half with a massive hit.
Once we got a platform for our backs, we were able to start producing opportunities to open up Epping’s defence and started to score tries.

Tries came from Rob Precious, Bullard, Stu Raines and Phil Hogan

4th Grade
Brothers 22 – 10 Epping

Fourth grade are starting to make a habit of winning games in the second half. This week was no different.
The first half was tightly contested and was marked by some physical exchanges in the rucks and some indiscipline from both teams.
Epping scored a try right on the stroke of half time to go into the interval ahead. Epping are a well coached club, and have well drilled, physical forward packs across all grades, and it took unti the second half of the game for Brothers to start gaining a foothold in this arm wrestle of a game.
Once Jonny Evans, Matty G, Matt C, Shaun and Charlie started to get over the gainline, it started giving us a better platform to get Tim, Nick and Kitchen into the game and stretch Epping out wide.
An excellent solo try from Marc Lav and another try from Jonny Evans put us in control as we heaped pressure on their line in the second half.
It has to be mentioned, that despite playing well over 100 games for Brothers, this was Jonny Evans first ever try for the blue and gold, which topped off an immensely physical man of the match display from the big man.
I think everyone has to agree that’s it’s great to see Jonny back, after a hard time with a few injuries.

A try apiece from Marc Lav, Charlie and Jonny Evans

Player points:
3: Jonny Evans: Dominant physical performance, first try ever for the club, and a bloody nice bloke.
2: Shaun Donachie: Energetic, physical play. Popped up all over the pitch, and did a lot of hard, dirty work to allow us to start to dominate the game.
1: Kitchen: Solid game, straight running, good hands. Good to see the biggest pisshead in the club back on the pitch.

3rd Grade
Brothers 19 – 0 Epping

Another solid performance from third grade, however, it’s a game we probably could look back on and think. “We could have done better.”
Despite a solid experienced pack and some real talent in the backs, we stuggled to get into the game at times.
This could be attributed to some indiscipline, some uncharacteristic mistakes and to be honest, an excellent performance from a number of the Epping forwards, who kept the pressure on us at the breakdown.
This game could also go down in history as the game with the worst decision ever from a referee in the history of time.
After Isei had run the entire length of the pitch to score a fantastic solo try, the referee who was standing 80 meters away ruled a knock on in the in goal area.
Even the Epping guys seemed taken aback by the decision, which robbed us of what would have probably been a deserved bonus point.

Player points:
3: Karl: Weapon in the scrum, weapon in the loose.
2: Hans: Another solid all round performance. Typical Hans workrate.
1: Salty: Broke the line, soft hands, great phyisical defence.

2nd Grade
Brothers 24 – 10 Epping

Second grade are in a rich seam of form, having won all their games this season so far, with 4 try bonus points in each.
The structure of their game has improved even over last year’s grand final winning side, and now that the team is getting used to playing together each week, this can only improve.
With Dean pulling the strings at 9 and Geoff getting the backs running on to the ball we always looked threating.
This combined with some excellent forward work from the likes of Johnny Gibbs, Tux, Enda and Brownie allowed us to pressurise them and keep them pinned into their own half for most of the game.
This constant pressure gave us numerous overlaps that we were able to exploit.

Tries came from Club Captain Paulie, Geoff, Jone and Enda.

Player points:
3: Brownie: Dominant in the scrum, solid defensive play, and instrumental in the forward platform that won us the game.
2: Mick: Strong straight running, combined with very physical defensive work. Typical “in the trenches” performance from the nuggety 12.
1: Davo: Another great performance from a man who continues to lead by example every week.

1st Grade
Brothers 26 – 15 Epping

A very physical and closely contested first grade between two unbeaten teams very much lived up to expectations.
Brothers started off well, working through the phases and getting over the gainline.
Epping though, as they had done all day, were very well drilled, and disrupted a lot of our continuity with some excellent defence and some solid hit ups.
Buckets and Lenny and Matty Mc worked hard in the back row to take the ball over the gain line and Tazer and Charlie popped up with some big carries in traffic.
In the end the superior physicality of the Brothers midfield where Franny, Kapene and Shaka were dominant started to punch holes in the Epping defence, and our runners like Mungo, Charlie, Vula and Lenny started to reap the benefits.
Epping are going to be an even stronger prospect at home, so the rematch of this game in another few weeks promises to be an even closer and tougher challenge.
Charlie popped up with two tries, and another yellow card! Buckets picked up a try as did Lenny.

Player points:
3: Daz Kapene: Solid defence, great strong running, good game control and brought runners into the game at pace.
2: Francis Cullimore: More strong running in midfield, broke the gainline continuously, and dominated in defence. Almost back to his best…
1: Buckets: More excellent defence work, Pocock-like pilfering in the ruck, and great link up play in a back row that had a great all round game.

Another whitewash for the boys in blue and gold with wins in all five grades.

5th Grade 26/14 – 4 tries
4th Grade 22/10 – 3 tries
3rd Grade 19/0 – 3 tries
2nd Grade 24/10 – 4 tries
1st Grade 26/15 – 4 tries

Match reports here

Congrats also to the following players who have been drafted into the 33 man training squad for the NSW Subbies Rep Squad.

Ratu
Vinny
Wadey
Shaka
Tazer
Buckets

Brothers have an astounding 6 players in the squad, which will get whittled down to 23 players over the next couple of weeks. They will then play NSW Country Cockatoos at 5pm on the 2 June at the SFS, as a curtain raiser to Tahs v Hurricanes. It promises like last year to be a better quality game than the Tahs!

Also, we’ve been featured in Holding’s Bits on the Subbies Website. See the piece from Scotty J on Brothers in the “Club In Focus” section.

Div Three
Club in Focus – Brothers, By Club Captain Scott James
After a few very lean years BROTHERS RUGBY has proven the time-honoured mantra that a winning season on the pitch follows hard work, and a successful off-season. In early 2011 Brothers were graded as one of the clubs in the then functioning 4th Division. After being a stalwart of 3rd Division for longer than anyone cared to remember it came as a rude shock to us that we had been relegated after years of below average performances.
As anyone will tell you, change only comes when you admit you’ve got a problem. A core group of players, ex-players and club supporters set out to turn the club’s fortunes around by re-building its foundations for success in Season 2011 and beyond. After setting ourselves a number of goals last season we successfully made our way back into 3rd Division for 2012. Further planning and effort has resulted in the formation of a Colts squad, new player recruitment, and a revived club spirit that’d bring a tear to the eye of old CBOB’s everywhere.
After four rounds, with one round postponed due to wet weather, the club has got off to a flyer of a start to the season. All grades are playing well, with 1st, 2nd and 3rd Grades winning their first three rounds, while 4th Grade and Colts have dropped a game each.
The guys are really enjoying their Rugby, and most importantly playing for each other, while the spirit (mainly beer) off the field also going well, with some dubious bets made between some of the leading characters in the playing group. As one 1st Grader can attest to from last year, after having made a bet, which he subsequently lost, resulting in getting a permanent reminder in the form of a fellow player’s name tattooed on his backside…’a bets a bet!’
Special mention to Dave Taylor who played his 300th game for Brothers against Blacktown last weekend. Well done, a fantastic achievement!
You definitely don’t see too many ‘one club men’ in the professional game anymore.

This week we have five grades as Epping are going to play us in a Halligan cup game.

There are a couple of massive games in first and second grade with two top of the table clashes.

There is no Colts game, and no doubt we will see some of our Colts players mixed in with the other grades this weekend.

Kickoff Times:
11:00 5th Grade
12:00 4th Grade
13:00 3rd Grade
14:00 2nd Grade
15:00 1st Grade

As always, please ensure that you arrive on time in order to allow the coaches to put organized and warmed up teams on the pitch.

Organization and preparation has been one of our main advantages this season against other teams, and we want to continue this pattern.

Brothers 22 – 10 Hills

Venue: Yattenden Oval

Best and Fairest
3pts; Issac Vunakece
2pts; Vuli Biuvanua
1pt; Adam Seage

Tryscorers;
Marc Lavermicocca
Matt Cullen

A sobering loss and maybe the one we needed to have!?! As Greg noted, “Boys, as cliched as it may sound the loss wasn’t a bad thing, we have taken a lot of learnings out of this experience and we will build upon it. You can never fully understand the exhilaration of winning well without first experiencing a loss. We will meet Hills again on more than one occasion and next time we will simply be better prepared. So out focus now should simply be one game at a time and concentrate on getting all the basics right and if we do that the rest will come and take care of itself. See you all at training.”

The initial contest on the day saw us in the game and although they had a territorial advantage we were showing signs of being in the game, sadly this was short lived and some costly mistakes lead to some relatively easy scoring opportunities. Hills took their first opportunity when a loose ball in our 22 presented them with the chance for an early try giving them a lead of seven nil. Not long afterwards another loose ball on our own line gave them a second opportunity and a 12 nil lead. Both of these tries seemed to involve marginal last passes but the man whistle didn’t think so and you gotta take the calls as they come.

Early in the piece Nathan Timbrell suffered a knock above the elbow and being forced from the field despite a more than adequate replacement in Sean it was unexpected and did disrupt our backline early in the game.

Mid way through the first half Nick Pasqualini pounced on a loose ball stepped two and ran 50 metres where he was tackled on the line and recycled, quick hands saw the ball shift left for another breakdown, where the ball was shifted back and ended up in the hands of Marc Lavermiccoco who burrowed over the line to put us on the board. Disappointingly shortly thereafter Nick Pasqualini succumbed to an injury and was replaced by Connor. Our backline was rearranged again with Tyler into half, Sean out onto the wing and Matt Cullen directing from No. 15.

The impassioned speech from Coach Lee at halftime saw him plead for us to take their bigger forwards wider from the ruck and not to throw haymaker passes. Another shift in the backline at the break saw Joel come on at fullback.

From the second half kick off an attempt to catch the ball saw it come off a stray foot, shoot across infield, where their centre pounced and ran an angle to touch down. Whilst our defence was caught napping here, it was their third try off broken play and a loose ball, providing our opponents opportunists moments can be eliminated by a more disciplined and committed approach. The score 2 minutes in to the second was half 5-22.in to the second half 5-22.

Marc L came off for a well deserved break with Steve Masters pushed up front Eddie S took his place on the side and again played well above his weight with a couple of good runs and recycling the ball. Mick Summers coming on for Vuli finished the game on the wing for us and also was called on for some defensive efforts. The second half was full of promising raids but all unfortunately came up short. This was a game were we were “found out” boys but what is important is what we found out about our opposition and the level of structure we need to play with to beat these guys!

Mark Toma came on for the hard working Rosie and didn’t disappoint with his work ethic but finished the game with a dodgy knee. Mind you he does claim a try set up from our own 5 metre line, however to the casual observer it was apparent he was anything except expecting the ball (with hands on hips indeed) when he shifted it right to a scantly marked backline which conspicuously included Issac who took the ball up to the half and with a well timed pass he got it on to Matt Cullen who showed his pace and step to turn one centre literally inside out and the crossed the line barely touched, again a try from us going some length of the field with some inspired passing. If only we had off got the more simple structure right, and not provided dumb opportunities through mistakes we would have been right in this game. All lessons for next time boys! Final Score 10-22.

We can’t play the game from our own goal line, nor can we keep giving the opposition simple options to camp out in our territory. These guys are beatable boys and unfortunately all we showed them yesterday was how beatable we are. It was in general our mistakes that allowed them to pounce clinically and get on the board, when we eliminate the errors and play to our strengths we have the game to take it to them and we will be sure to welcome them to Roseville in a few weeks.

Traveling out to Blacktown I arrived in time to see Tom Carnanffan carving it up on the wing for fourth grade in their narrow 14 to 10 victory, Third grade took away a healthy victory at 57 to nil that included; Matt Cullen and Joel Brooks and cameos from Issac, Vuli and yours truly. Thanks for backing up boys and especially for traveling the extra miles, cheers.

Whilst the next official colts training is Thursday 17th of May I would suggest that we could all do with the fitness that may result from training with in the interim. Charles or I will be in touch about Tuesday options and any players would be welcome to attend training on Thursday with the senior grades. The club round next week sees Epping travel to Roseville and match fitness could be gained with a run around in fourths or thirds. Stay tuned also for details of a colts social evening in the next couple of weeks.

Sen-or Ole

Next Colts Fixture
vs Hornsby Saturday 26th May

Fourth Grade

Brothers 14 – 10 Blacktown

Fourth grade was a cagey affair. Brothers ran out under the captainship of Butlins for the first time this year. It’s nice to see him take some time out from his hectic schedule travelling around the world to come and have a game with us.
Blacktown is usually a bit of a graveyard for Brothers teams and it took some time for this new look Brothers side to get into the game and start controlling it.
In the end this game was won and lost in the forwards.
An excellent, solid scrum and some well drilled forward work gave us the platform we needed to get the win.
Some excellent pod work led by Matt C and G, Tuomas, Paddy and Karl set the foundation and a well taken try by Jon White was the deciding factor.
Let’s not mention the slightly dodgy goal kicking for now.

Player points:
3: Tuomas – Excellent ruck work, pod work and solid scrummaging. Great start to the season for the new man from Finland, which let’s be honest isn’t known for its rugby.
2: Nathan – Great impact off the bench, strong running.
1: Hughie – Good controlled half backmanship. Slowed the game down and allowed us to use our patterns.

Third Grade

Brothers 57 – 0 Blacktown

The last few years haven’t been very fruitful for Brothers in third grade v Blacktown. This time we managed to turn the tables in specatular fashion.
The old slow fellas complemented by some young fast bucks from the colts, was an excellent combination and we managed to cut through the Blacktown defence almost at will.
Joel led the try scoring with three and an excellent all round performance.
Matt C, Mick Nicol, Opie, Mick D and Dave Wightley all chipped in a try apiece in a well controlled game where like in fourth grade, we kept to our patterns, and played some very solid rugby.

Player points:
3: Mick Nicol – Great game control, good hands, and a clear head when required.
2: Coops – Immense work rate.
1: Hans – Typical performance from Hans, dominating lineouts and rucks and generally making a nuisance of himself.

Second Grade

Brothers 46 – 3 Blacktown

Another immense performance from the blue and gold. This was a great win against what should be considered a very solid second grade Blacktown side.
We controlled the game from start to finish and apart from some needless over elaboration scored plenty of tries.
Jone scored 4 tries, Kit officially scored two but that might have to be double checked! Dave Wightley scored his second of the day and Matty Mc made his usual appearance on the try roster.

Player points:
2: Kit
2: Jone
1: Matty Mc
1: Tim Parsons

First Grade

Brothers 31 – 7 Blacktown

First grade was a clash of possibly two of the top four or five teams in the competition. Blacktown are traditionally a strong physical side who play plenty of rugby.
To be fair, first grade was probably a more competitive affair than the scoreline suggest, in fact Blacktown had long periods of possession, but just lacked penetration.
This was partially due to an excellent defensive performance from Brothers.
A couple of tries in the last few minutes gave the scoreline a nice gloss and crowned an excellent day out in the west for Brothers with a 4 – 0 overall scoreline, that keeps us top of the Club Championship for now.
But, it’s a long season to go.
Tries came from Vula, Blacky, Buckets, Franny and the “Flying Mo”

Player points:
3: Buckets – Great defensive work, made life hell at the breakdown for Blacktown.
2: Lenny – More great defense, and took some great ball over the gainline.
1: Vinny – Good distribution and game control, and always a danger on the fringes.

Dave Taylor led out second grade in making his 300th appearance for the club. Dave is a true club man and works tirelessly on and off the field for the club we all love. Congratulations Dave, and here’s to the next 300 games!

We’ve had a chequered history heading out to Blacktown but this week we returned with some excellent results.

1st Won 31 – 7
2nd Won 46 – 3
3rd Won 57 – 0
4th Won 14 – 10

Colts, unfortunately were beaten 22-10 by an excellent Hills side, but will have lots of opportunity to exact revenge over the next few weeks.

Match reports are now available.

Next up Epping on Saturday.

Colts are facing Hills in what should our toughest challenge to date.

Kick off is at 10.45 at Yattenden Oval, Baulkham Hills via John or Tors Street.

Be aware of the kick off time and get there in plenty of time.

View Larger Map

Seniors are at Blacktown in what is a 2nd v 3rd in first grade game. Blacktown are traditionally strong at home so we need to be prepared for a physical challenge.

Blacktown have moved from Charlie Bali Oval to

Alwyn Lindfield Reserve,
Also known as Glenwood Reserve,
Glenwood Park Drive,
Glenwood.

View Larger Map

12:00 4th Grade
13:00 3rd Grade
14:00 2nd Grade
15:00 1st Grade

3rd and 4th graders to be there at 11:30 to prepare for both games.

And Issue 5 of the Brothers Chronicles has been published

Read it here

Match summaries are available here

Also:

300 club race has started.

Dave Taylor on 299 games, Roy Anderson on 293 and Sean Brannan on 292.