by What a difference a week makes. Last week, thrashings and general
blow out scorelines, this week, nail biters all round. And one really must
wonder who reads this newsgroup. Earlier in the week there were grumblings
about the lack of intensity and passion in the SL games and now all of a
sudden it's there in buckets. We've got two send offs, at least another
three likely to be cited, a couple of medium level brawls, a ton of great
defense and some absolutely classic tries. Coincidence? Well let me just
say that I bet the memos between SL and its clubs during the last week
would make interesting reading.
* Thursday, March 27th 1997
PERTH 18 def ADELAIDE 16 at Adelaide Oval
Perth: Tries - Daylight, Wilson, O'Neill
Goals - O'Neill 2
Field Goals - O'Neill 2
Adelaide: Tries - Wrigley, Quinn
Goals - Wrigley 4
Referee: B Grant
Attendance: 16,294
* Saturday, March 29th 1997
AUCKLAND 16 def PENRITH 14 at Ericsson Stadium, Auckland
Auckland: Tries - Ropate, Hoppe, Betts
Goals - Ridge, Ellis
Penrith: Tries - Girdler, Drew
Goals - Girdler 3
Referee: B Harrigan
Attendance: 15,000
* Sunday, March 30th 1997
CANBERRA 18 def HUNTER 12 at Bruce Stadium, Canberra
Canberra: Tries - Furner, O'Neall, Kennedy
Goals - Furner 3
Hunter: Tries - Miles, Beauchamp
Goals - Zisti 2
Referee: T Mander
Attendance: 15,650
Well the Raiders get on the board at last and a pretty good effort
it was too. Their attack was about as good as it has been all season but
their defense was the big improvement. Finally the opposition had to work
for their tries instead of sliding through paper thin defense. Hunter were
still able to make good ground during general play but on the line the
Canberra defense was rock solid.
* Monday, March 31st 1997
NORTH QUEENSLAND 16 def CANTERBURY 14 at Belmore Sports Ground
North Queensland: Tries - Mahon, Shipway, Bowman
Goals - Phillips 2
Canterbury: Tries - Ryan 2
Goals - Halligan 3
Referee: S Clark
Attendance: 9,830
"Oh Yeeaaahhh!!!" After listening to this match on the radio I
really wish I'd been able to see it. It sounded like an absolute thriller
that had everything. See-sawing scoreline, end to end and sideline to
sideline play, great last ditch defense, controversy and heartbreak. About
the only things missing were the crowd and the second coming - both of
which are probably pretty unstandable anyway (afterall the Cowboys ain't
much of a drawcard and it was the Messiah's busiest weekend of the year). :-)
And apparently NQ forward Peter Jones did his representative chances no
harm playing in front of the selectors. Possibly the Cowboys first home
grown rep player?
On the judiciary side of things, Walters will deserve evrything he
gets IMO. The knee to the opponent's face was a blatant and down right
stupid thing to do. Doubly so for a team captain. The Britt tackle on
Roberts looked very bad especially in the light of how Roberts came down
from it but I suspect if he is found guilty it won't be too harsh. It was
a tackle asking for trouble (ie. reckless or careless) but Roberts did
appear to drop down into it a bit IMO. And finally there were apparently
questions about tackles from Jones and Lomax as well. Worst case - look
for the Cowboys reserve grade side to be playing the Broncos next week.
Best case - expect Death to be starting *** and a stand in captain to
be appointed. Oh well at least the crowd will be good.
BRISBANE 14 def CRONULLA 12 at ANZ Stadium, Brisbane
Brisbane: Tries - Walters, Smith
Goals - Lockyer 3
Cronulla: Tries - Rogers
Goals - Rogers 2
Referee: G Annesley
Attendance: 17,294
I said last week that 26,000 was a reasonable crowd considering
Canberra's position coming into that match but this week's crowd of 17,000
was just plain bad. Now I know that Brisbane had some pretty extraordinary
weather in the lead up to this match but that still doesn't cover a crowd
this far down IMO. I would've expected at least 35,000 under normal
conditions and absolutely no less than 25,000 even given the circumstances.
Perhaps it's all the dire predictions of a SL failure coming true, or
perhaps Brisbanites are just cry babies who don't like getting their feet
wet (one or two cyclones would fix that IMHO). Personally with my great
hate for just about anything to come out of the south-east of Queensland
I'm inclined to believe the latter (insert smiley) but either way the
Broncos better pick up their act.
* Points Table - After five rounds...
W D L PF PA Pts
BRISBANE 5 - - 106 50 10
PENRITH 4 - 1 134 78 8
CRONULLA 3 - 2 95 76 6
PERTH 3 - 2 110 98 6
CANTERBURY 2 - 3 90 105 4
Adelaide 2 - 3 70 90 4
North Queensland 2 - 3 82 109 4
Auckland 2 - 3 56 92 4
Hunter 1 - 4 88 76 2
Canberra 1 - 4 76 133 2
And AAP still can't get their points tables right. In their Monday
report they managed to get the Cowboys reserve grade for and against into
the first grade table. After last weeks thrashing by the Mariners when I
saw their points difference end up at negative one after this round I knew
something was amiss.
Catchya round, Leigh
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Leigh T. Gillespie * "It takes leather balls *
* Phone - Australia (077) 791219 * to play Rugby!" *
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