2021 – Round 5 Roundup

The greater the Effort the sweeter the Reward.

Brothers Ladies day and our men delivered.

Five games in and we have our biggest winning margin to date, 64 points to zip. Great to see the workload being fairly distributed across the park, this happens when we execute our game plan, punches off our set pieces, pistons on turnover balls and on our option plays of set pieces. It allows us to compress the D in a tight space allowing our backs and open side flanker space to work with. Defence was a lot better today, we didn’t let much through the rucks and we mirrored well, taking forward space and executing our one on ones.

Looking at the glass half empty…… we’re still not executing our game plan in our half. When we don’t execute we expand too much unnecessary energy, leading to an overworked forward pack, isolated runners and loss of shape because we’re trying to build too many phases when we’re 60-80 metres away from the opposition try line. If we can execute a good exit kick towards the sideline, it gives us a breather, allows us to set our defensive line in opposition territory and we have energy to fuel our defence. Something for our halves and fullback to manage moving forward. The other negative play is our post-contact passes, we need to cut that out from our game, either draw and pass or take it into contact, recycle from the ruck. If you draw and pass it allows you to support the player who’s running into space. If you decide to take it into contact, it draws the defence towards the ruck and we may even catch mismatches or lazy defenders – something we really need to improve on.

Today without our skipper, Clay Henry lead the team. He led well, another that leads by action, be it a tough carry, smashing the opposition and even showing us a sound passing game. Again our big men delivered, Matt Norman,the usual barnstorming runs, Braydon Lenz, safe on kick receipts with good conversion carries and Paul Tuivawa leading the charge, complemented by the rest of the pack especially Solo. Solo bagging 4 tries, the big man makes rugby looks easy, a great inclusion to Brothers Rugby. Jusdys Te Whare filling in at playmaker for the first time, did very well to control the game, especially in defence. He connected well with his league brothers, centre pairing Iamo Rawali and Adam Sheers. Our back three held solid today, especially when making kick returns or connecting well in attack out wide.

Pleasing to see the bench coming on and continued the work, keeping the integrity of our try line and even creating and scoring a couple of tries. Liam Casey, Tristan Howes, Eddie Sudradjat and Justin Kim played their most minutes in 1st grade. Liam & Eddie unlucky not to have scored when the opportunity arrived. Once again we called on our club president to lace up his boots, he didn’t disappoint, ironing out an opposition player.

Good win today, enjoy and let’s show up for our Beep Test on Tuesday. Let’s do the work so when can create more memories like today, Zumba Zumba Aye!

Points this week:

3 Points – Hard to go pass Solo with four tries, holds the ball like all Fijian big men do, one-handed.

2 Points – Declan Ward does a lot of good work around the ruck, learning to pressure the opposition playmaker off the line outs, has one of the best chop tackle techniques , picks his moment to jackal.

1 Point – Braydon Lenz, Matt Norman & Paula Tuivawa same type of players with good carry conversation rates.

Thanks

Lenny