Round 1 – Match Reports

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