5th Grade
Brothers 26 – 14 Epping

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.

Colts

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.

Matchday 3 saw UWSH make the trip in from Richmond and the Colts hosting a Blue Mountains side at Roseville for our first home game of the season.

The day started really well with a good win for the Colts against a solid Blue Mountains side.

From Greg Lee:

Just in case any of my boys missed the 3-2-1s for the game against the mountains here they are again and by the way Congrats for your third straight win, let’s keep the momentum going we’ve got a big one this weekend.

3pts – Charles Kilby – solid performance from first to last whistle, causing havoc at every breakdown, forced the opposition to make mistakes, ubiquitous presence, outstanding leadership.

2pts – Connor Stead – constant spoiling, aggressively contesting for the ball at the breakdown, huge work rate, excellent support & reading of play.

1pt – Matt Cullen – elusive running, excellent metres gained, always breaking first tackles, good hands, smart play & excellent set up for next phase.

1pt – Alex Lavermicocca – immediate impact, hard straight running lines with the ocassional big hit [BoooYah], superior ball retention, good ball security.

Full match report

Well we found ourselves in a real contest a very tight close game last Saturday. it was always going to be a tough game against the Mountains and a very physical contest it was. The first half was a wrestling match with a nil all scoreline at half time and the possession and territory shared.

Our scrum impressed taking many tight head wins, even with waiting the eternity it took for their half back to feed the ball, well done up front guys! The timings on the lineouts were generally very good but we could do some more work on this area and options once the ball is secured. However all in all we muscled up in the forwards and this allowed us some freedom in the backs.

The defence across the park and through the game was very good. Todd inspired by an early knee to the head was sure not to let anyone past him and came up hard in defence. Some outstanding crunching sandwich tackles, and some inspiring one on one hits from the likes of Alex Lava, and two new and very welcome players; Joel Brooks (I can still hear the wind leaving that blokes lungs) and Nick Pasqualini.

We stepped up after half time and had the better of play and territory for the whole second half. It still however took some time for any points to come.

It was a tough and tight game in the forwards and our pick and drive platform was exceptional setting a good base for the backs to launch from or allowing us the option of a loose forward running. In fact it was a barnstorming run from Adam Seage playing like a breakaway, which put Mountains on the back foot in their own 22 and lead to their defences being stretched for the first try scored on the other side of the park. As the backline attacked Tyler was completely unselfish with a wide pass seeing Matt Cullen score towards Roseville Corner. The conversion was unsuccessful and the score; seven to nil.

The pass timing in the backline was great at stages; Joel’s pass to Tyler who again unselfishly linked up with Wuli who touched down out wide on the other wing gave us a 10 to nil lead. Again Joel showed his class infront of the tryline when a clever step and change of direction saw him slide through a hole that wasn’t there to score under the posts and with Stueys conversion we were up 17 to nil.

We saw several more opportunities to attack and definite chances but with the half shortened we just didn’t find that elusive fourth try for the bonus point. And the scoreline remained 17 to nil, one note to Charles it is customary when cheering the opposition through the tunnel to get their name right, we are playing Hills this coming Saturday!

One outstanding player on the day for mine was Nathan Timbrell, his defence was awesome and on many occasions he tackled their big man one on one and took him down with ease. His use of options and ball delivery are instrumental in the teams success, how this guys ever thought he wasn’t a halfback is beyond me, he has made the position his own and plays there with style and class.

Many thanks must go, as always, to our fresh reserves, many who did not get a run this week and the likes of Tom, Mark Toma, Rodez and Luke should be congratulated on their patience and team spirit as they unselfishly took it in their stride. On this note many boys did hang back and have a run in fourths and even higher grades. Tom, Mark, Rodez and Connor all played part of the fourths narrow victory and had a taste of how different ‘old man’ football is. The pace is off and the structure of the game can be very different, there is much more time allowing younger, fitter players to shine. If anyone is interested in having a go in the higher grades where possible, don’t hold back, you are capable and if things transpire you could very well see yourself representing the club in multiple finals series at the end of the year.

Just another word on Blue Mountains these guys will come looking for us when we next play them, having had a lot of experience up at Lapstone Oval let me tell you it is very different playing these boys at home. We will have to step up again!

The coach congratulates you on your third straight win and urges that the momentum continue but he warns against complacency “we’ve got the big one this weekend”. Yep it is certainly ahead of us, we have a big step up this week for Hills, we saw the brand of footy they play in the trials and we will need to lift to take these guys on at home, a victory would give us great momentum going into the second round. Let’s train hard on Thursday and be more than ready for the big test!

Zumba Zumba Zey,
Colts Cultural Attache
Se-nor Brannan
Ole

Next Fixture
vs Hills
Venue; Yattenden Oval, John or Torrs Street Baulkham Hills
There is a left turn immeadiately after the exit from the freewayinto Torrs Street which leads to a carpark at the back of the field
Time; 10:45am Be there dressed by 10am! Not joking this week! Playing away we need to know we’ve got the troops ready!

Fourth Grade

Next up was a first win for the season for our fourth grade with a number of new faces in the line up, and a couple of more experienced gentlemen. They overcame UWSH by a narrow 16-14 margin. Seanie Brannan and Matt Callaghan popping up with the tries.

Player points:
3: Rodger Shanahan
2: Matt Callaghan
1: Matty G

Third Grade

The third game of the day saw another excellent win for third grade making it two from two. This result was a bit more emphatic with Brothers running out deserved 31-0 winners. Opie top scored with a brace of tries and Karl, Matt and Lucas also popped up for a try apiece. Excellent result all round for third grade.

Player points:
3: Opie
2: Davo
1: Mick Nicol

Second grade scored another good win to maintain their 100% record so far. A 4-0 try count helped them to a 20-3 win. Chris, Vula Rarawa, Club Captain Fantastic, and Matty Mc contributed a try apiece.

Second grade
Player points:
3: Enda
1: Wes
1: Vula
1: Hans

Lastly, a great finish to the day with a 38-11 win for the first grade side. Tries from Maikeli, Vili, Wadey, Vinny, Daz Kapene and Lenny gave first grade a comfortable win.

Player points:
3: Clarky
2: Lenny
1: Daz Firmin

This rounded up a great day all round and the first time since the 1970s that Brothers Rugby won all five grades in one day.

This puts us top of the club championship but more importantly gives us momentum for an extremely tough challenge this weekend against a physical and talented Blacktown squad. Getting to training in numbers is key to having everyone well drilled for this tough test.

Venue: Cliff Oval, Wahroongah
Result: Victory 44-0

Best & Fairest
3 Point: Nathan Timbrell
2 Points: Justin Gates
1 Point each to: Matt Cullen, Charles Kilby & Marc Lavermicocca

Referees Points
3 Points: Connor Stead
2 Points: Charles Kilby
1 Point: Nathan Timbrell

Tryscorers
Matt Cullen: 4 tries
Vuli Biuvanua: 1 Try
Todd Stephenson: 1 Try
Charles Kilby: 1 Try
Justin Gates: 1 Try

Conversions
Stuart Raines: 2 Conversions

With the amount of rain we had last week it took numerous phone calls between the two coaches to find a venue for the game and thankfully that was eventually done. Hornsby having the bye in the first round were keen to get their season under way, and Greg was keen for us to get some solid footy under our belts, Cliff Oval was available and locked in. Again the scoreline belies another dominant performance in which we showed our skills and attacking flair, but again demonstrated much room for improvement with countless attacking opportunities squandered at our own hands with mistakes and wrong last up options pursued. For starters let’s put the attacking kick inside their 22 on the backburner, it didn’t work on at least 4 occasions in this game and is rarely the right option. But overall an eight try victory in any event is an awesome outcome and again congratulations on all your performances are in order.

Thankfully Hornsby had a front row and contested the scrums, allowing our guys to have their first live scrums of the season, and as expected it performed well, it will be great to see this element of our game develop, a solid front row of Nate, Justin (rewarded with a try in this game, but injury wise offering the one concern of the day with a reoccurrence of a shoulder injury, we are all hopeful it recovers quickly) and Adam ably backed by a solid back five. JB and Jayde were again silent workhorses for us in the seconds and performed well with lineout claims both on our ball and theirs, the height from the lifters ensured their efforts often went rewarded claiming the ugget and accurate throwing on ours ensured the right result. The mobility of our back row was again most impressive with Charles, Marc and Connor seeming to take it in turns with the big hits and retrieving turn over ball as a consequence. With two of our regular options (Masters & Rohana) in the backrow absent it was great to see the versatility displayed, with players more than competently filling the absences. For this correspondent a stand out display of the victory was this effort and effectiveness of our back row, well done lads.

The tries started to fall for us again in the first ten minutes with Vuli crossing the line for the first time in the blue and gold and showing some promise of things to come. Charles again also contributed to the scoring but how Connor did not cross after two promising runs leaves me wanting to demonstrate some of my famous finishing ability, next time perhaps a step might be the better option rather than attempting to run straight over the top of the fullback.

This report would not be complete without an admonishment for our complete lack of discipline and chat to the ref on several occasions throughout the match but most notably for a ten to 15 minute period late in the first half. We were marched, penalised out of attack and forced to defend numerous penalties right on our own line. I implore us as a team to please learn the lesson here, this WAS a good referee with a very reasonable interpretation of the game, should we ever come up against a difficult ref this behaviour could cost us …… and even lose us the game. Furthermore this referee was very very complimentary to our team and it’s strengths, and did made some disciplinary decisions based on ‘leveling the playing field’ and out of respect for our strengths and their weaknesses. I am perplexed by how we could get him so far offside, by direct comment and before the game was over he stated that we had a very strong team that would be a force in this competition. Let’s not allow lack of discipline to cost us a good run in this comp!

Our defence across the park was again impressive and the effort to keep them scoreless when we penalised them into the game and were able to sustain the pressure exerted so very very close to our tryline on a number of occasions was pleasing. Of course welcoming Matt Cullen into the starting lineup gave us a solid option for attack in our backline, Mr Bonus Point scored 4 tries himself and will be a handy asset for the season. Todd Stephenson was again very solid in both attack and defence and again his efforts were rewarded with a try. Late in the game everyones heart was in their mouths as Michael Summers looked certain to pounce on the loose ball and score himself a meat pie, alas it wasn’t to be, the likable Mr Versatility didn’t cross on this occasion, better luck next time Mick but thanks for remembering the kicking tee! And honourable mention must go to Nathan Timbrell who played a barnstorming game at half, playing with confidence in a position (although not originally favoured by him) he seems to be making it his own, the tenacity and strength of a forward with the skills and finesse of a fine inside back, well done.

With the senior games rained off it was great to see solid support from the rest of the club, number of supporters made the trek North to watch our boys have a run around, playing as a club at the same venue next week for the first time will be a great day for the club. And again fantastic to see the family support, with more than a couple of parents remarking how awesome it was to see solid consecutive victories ‘neath the Blue ‘n Gold. The post match BBQ was a great example of the camaraderie of rugby, with the teams mixing well to discuss the game and the comp, always pleasing to see. All in all another good outing for the team, well done. Next Saturday morning we welcome the Mountain Colts team to Roseville, be prepared the Blue Mountains side and Brothers share a proud history of tough confrontational rugby and I am certain this will be no different, bring your game day mentality!

Next Fixture
vs Blue Mountains
10:45 am Roseville Chase
Saturday 28th April
Be there by 10am ready to warm up.

1st Grade
Brothers 45-8 Waverley

A good win first up for a new look first grade team.
A 7 try victory is a great start to the season against a well drilled and very physical Waverley side.
Waverley will be a tougher test in the next heads up as will the other teams in this Division.
It’s unlikely we’re going to get things all our own way for the season, so let’s knuckle down and keep working on our patterns and set plays.

Player points went to
3. Daz Kapene
2. Buckets
1. Francis Cullimore

2nd Grade
Brothers 22-12 Waverley

A good win in the end in second grade. After a closely contested first half, Brothers pulled away in the second half as our superior fitness told.
Once the cobwebs were blown off and we started getting our patterns right, we started to control the game and the structure we are working on in training started to pay off.
This show the importance of having a full team at Roseville on a Thursday.
Two tries in the last fifteen minutes or so put a gloss on what was effectively a closely contested match against a drilled Waverley side.

Player points went to
3. Paul Gibbs
2. Justin Brown
3. Opetaiai George

3rd Grade
Brothers 9-8 Waverley

With a new look back line and a grizzled pack with thousands of Brothers caps, and that’s just Roy Anderson, there was a mixed look to the third grade side.
With a brand new 10, 12, 13 combination, it took a while to get our shape. But once we got our patterns going in the second half we started to impose ourselves on the game.
We scraped through in the end by a single point against a determined Waverley side, but excellent defence kept them out.
As Moose said after the game: “We tried hard to lose that one boys, but they tried harder.”
Lots to work on this week, but a win is a win. Special mention to Lucas who kicked all our points.
Player points went to
3. Davo
2. Shaun Donachie
3. Michael Nicol

4th Grade
Brothers 26-0 Waverley

A tough start to the season for a completely new look fourth grade side. We struggled to make opportunities, and some of our defence was a little lacklustre.
There are some positives though, when we started using some of our patterns we looked more in control and with a long season to go there is a lot of time to start working out these wrinkles.
There’s enough experience and talent in the 3/4 grades to put a serious bid in to challenge for both minor premierships, but we won’t do it without training.
See you all Thursday night, there’s lots of work to do…

Player points went to:
3. Shaun Donachie
2. Mick Onslow
1. Sean Brannan

Colts
14th April vs Roseville @ Roseville Chase; Victory 50-7

Tryscorers;
2 Charles Kilby
1 Nathan Timbrell
1 Alex Lava
1 Johno Rohana
1 Rhys Wigham
1 Stuart Raines
1 Todd Stephenson

Conversions; Stuart Raines 5

Best and Fairest Points;
3 Charles Kilby
2 Connor Stead
1 Rhys Wigham

A new day dawned on Brothers Rugby last Saturday with the first game for a colts side representing the club since the 1970′s (see the end of this report for a few more details on the history of colts and the resurgence).

Although at our home ground the game was actually an away game for us against Roseville, as is evident from the scoreline it was a dominant display from our newest Brothers team and a resounding victory, the points we accumulated (including the bonus point) have helped our club take an early first round lead in the Club Championship, and we are hopeful of contributing even further to the success of Brothers in 2012 and the quest for a 2nd consecutive Club Championship. At the time of writing we are also at the pinnacle of the Cowboy Cup which represents the Club Championship points across all divisions, it is of course very early days and a draw which does not favour us 3rd Division clubs in this overall competition but a good start to the season nonetheless.

It should be noted that prior to the game uncontested scrums were called by Roseville, and whilst this was a disappointment to us it did allow our front row to conserve their energy for effective mobile use around the paddock, and Justin, Adam and Nate added significantly to our defensive efforts. Additionally to our advantage under the new rules of uncontested scrums Roseville were reduced to 14 men for the duration of the game, not ideal on a sunny 27 degree day and it did take its toll on them. The Roseville players although clearly disappointed with the one way traffic throughout the afternoon never slackened off and indeed applied pressure on our line for a period late in the first half, I am certain they will step up for their next encounter with us and will be a much stronger opposition.

From the kick off we seemed to have the better of the play, soon regaining the ball through our forwards and putting pressure on in their 22, eventually spinning the ball wide Captain and player of the round; Charles Kilby was able to palm off a valiant effort from their much smaller winger, to score the first try of the season after about five minutes play, Stuart Raines was able to convert with apparent ease from a drop kick. Shortly thereafter Roseville hit back with a try in the corner, your correspondent was very close to the action and whilst their was considerable question over a) when and by who the corner flag was taken out and b)whether the player himself was in touch and finally c) the grounding of the ball, a benefit of the doubt decision was made and Roseville with a converted try were on the scoreboard at seven all, this however was to be their only points for the game.

In a game which saw us score eight tries to only one conceded clearly our desire to run the footy lead to some fantastic attacking opportunities, and had of Michael Summers delivered on his Thursday night promise of supplying a kicking tee, Stuart Raines boot may have been able to deliver more than the five conversions it did, although with his first drop kick sailing straight between the posts from wide out it seemed it may not have been required, however for some of the latter tries the Roseville team graciously lent us their kicking tee.

By half time our boys had taken advantage of several scoring opportunities and the scoreboard read 31 to 7, Charles Kilby’s second try was an unopposed stroll down the blind side with the opposition winger being cautioned for a tripping attempt on him in the in goal. Other tries were scored by clever work from our backs including Rhys Wigham’s coolheaded effort when confronted with an awkwardly bouncing ball, he kept control of it on the toe, soccering it several times over the tryline before landing on it to touchdown. It was clear to the spectators that our dominant forward work gave our backs the platform, position and confidence to chance their arm and run the ball and a tries to another 3 of our backs followed. Strong muscle from all our forwards and especially Johno Rohana and his back row counterparts of Steve Masters, Connor Stead and of course Kilby meant we never took a step backwards in defense and continually drove them backwards or better still even off the ball. Whilst our defensive effort around the park was fantastic all game and all should be proud of this fact, the fact they were kept scoreless late in the game was in one instance thanks solely to a try saving effort from our smallest player Eddie who at about 45 kilograms wringing wet bought down a 90 kilogram second row opponent only metres out from our own try line.

Jayde scored a fantastic try mid way through the second half, diving over a ruck and the tryline with the work of an olympic gymnast, his Mum & Dad and girlfriend saw it and cheered loudly, but unfortunately the ref didn’t, he had his back to the action and had just blown up a penalty in our favour only a metre out. A try to Johno Rohana came shortly thereafter. Other highlights included clearing kicks from Stuart Raines and Tyler Chant getting us out of trouble in our own territory. Nathan Timbrell and Sean Loughlin’s service from half back was impressive whilst generally speaking Stuart Raines passes were well timed and weighted, creating attacking opportunities.

Despite the glowing praises laid on in this summary (I am a glass nearly full kinda guy) there is of course still plenty to work and improve on, we can’t rest on our laurels, the season will be a tough one and the opposition will step up, starting with Hornsby this weekend. Hills too (who challenged us strongly in the trials) have shown an impressive first up victory against Blue Mountains in their opening game, the comp will get tougher and we will need to improve. Our game was a little rushed and disjointed at times and this will improve only through training and playing to a game plan together as a unit and coming to know each others styles. Training is at this stage on Thursdays 6-45 at Roseville Chase, a further group decision about Tuesdays and other trainings will be made by the team and coaching staff together as a unit.

One other deficiency our victory did expose at the weekend was our complete lack of ability to sing the victory song, the complete words are listed on our website which I encourage you all to visit at brothersrugby.com.au, learn the words and have a look around the site which includes our draw for the season, points tables and social happenings.

From the coaches perspective the stand out factor of the day was the enthusiasm which all of our troops took to the day, the team work exhibited and the squad mentality that we are taking to the season will augur well for the games to come. It was also very pleasing to see the support of family and friends on the sidelines. We look forward to seeing this throughout the season and involving parents, family, girlfriends and friends in our activities as the season goes on. If you haven’t already please check out the photos on facebook and our website of the game.

Additionally our Friday meat trays raffles will commence this week on the 20th at our major sponsor the Orchard Tavern Chatswood from 5-30 in the afternoon. I will be looking for a few blokes to assist me and to show the ropes to, please be prepared to volunteer at training if you have the time. This is a great way to raise much needed funds for the club and everyone should contribute to this effort at some stage throughout the season.

Next Fixture
Saturday 21st April
Brothers Colts vs Hornsby Colts
10-45 am Roseville Chase oval

As mentioned above a little taste of the history of the club; From 1947 when CBOB’s (Christian Brothers Old Boy’s; the old boys of St Pius X College Chatswood which was originally called Christian Brothers Chatswood) was started the club always had colt’s teams, in fact for many years the club was made up of only under 21 sides representing the club in the Gordon Districts Comp. In the 1970′s the colts teams ceased to take the field for the club and the club has consisted only of senior grades since. Much interest has been shown over the last few decades in getting some Colts sides up and running but it could never attract enough school leavers from St Pius or other junior clubs to make it a reality until now in our 65th year!
In this regard a huge vote of thanks is owed to the fantastic off season effort by Charles Kilby and Michael Summers (who both played in the senior grades last year) who assembled a capable playing roster and mustered great enthusiasm amongst their mates and recent school leavers. These boys joined the ranks of other existing players at the club such as Matt Cullen, Rhys Wigham and Tyler Chant to form the squad of players we have today, in fact going forward if we had the inclusion of another batch of front row players it may be possible for us to consider a second side taking the field, this will hopefully come over time.

Zumba Zumba Zey