TGS VS BBC,  IN TOOWOOMBA

ADDED SUNDAY 25/05/2008

Actually started the morning watching a little Under 12 footy up at Downlands,  gee Goondi have a good Under 12 side.  AS you do when Goondi sides are in town,  I ran into Goondiwindi legend,  Michael Dillo Dillon,  who even has a jacket with "DILLO" embroidered on it.  Nice touch!  Mick again jovially ( I think) warned me that I should be more careful with literary licence,  but here is a link to my original article on Mike Dillon from last year.  Be sure and read it,  I want it to be the most read page on the site,  just for Mick.

From there I whipped across to TGS,  to spend the best part of the day there.  Had some College kids playing in Under 15's and 16's,  and one in 14's too,  but missed most of the 14's.  However noted that they had a win (I think) over BBC.

The 15's played very well,  for a hard fought win in a see sawing game.  A nice try to Macalister Gee sealed it up for the home side,  but they toughed out a nice win,  and already they have plenty of injuries.

The Toowoomba 16's I thought were very unlucky to lose,  going down by a narrow margin,  against a much bigger side,  but these things happen.  If the season were long enough,  you would win some you were not supposed to.

Fergus Frith had a very good game in the unfamiliar role for him of 10, and I have a different set of views to most on the role of a 10,   but he did it very well.  Joe Barrett I thought was outstanding at 15,  relishing the choices the position has to offer in regards to running channels and line entries.  Joe made some very good decisions,  and was involved in a very good try.  He would have been my best on field without a question.

The First XV clash was a very interesting one,  I'm not sure if it was entertaining or not.  We had 70 points on the board after 60 minutes,  in a game that was certainly not dominated by defence of any kind.

BBC raced out to a 14 to 3 lead in the first half,  only to be run down by TGS,  who went to the break up by 22 to 14,  and looking like they would take the money.

However,  the second half saw the sides go score for score,  with BBC pinching the final rally of scoring,  courtesy of a couple of penalties,  and getting the gong by the aforementioned score of 39 to 34.

Rob Middling was very good for BBC,  until he got injured,  doing the tough stuff in the middle and running like a centre, putting on some nice offloads too.  I thought it all may go to hell in a handbasket when he left,  but they continued to fight on.  Dane Gagai was pretty busy from 12,  and their number 4,  looked OK come lineout time.

For the Toowoomba side,  I really wanted to have a look at Ben Reuter,  one of the Broncos contracts.  I watched him in the Friday night club footy,  and while he obviously was big and strong,  and looked to have a good carry,  playing at outside centre he was often frustrated by the close and rushing defensive line,  and playing at outside centre in his first two games ever of rugby proved a challenge.  Coach Bromley has settled him in to the blind flanker role, with what seems to be a running,  advantage line winning link running role.  He demonstrated a nice offload.  I would have like to have seen the stats,  or his stats,  probably 12 to 15 carries,  9 to 12 effective advantage line winners,  with ball retention,  maybe 3 offloads,  and 3 he lost possession on the ground due to support players not being there quite fast enough,  or poor work across the contact zone from them.  It does look like he could become the full package,  once he gets fully on top of his role in terms of defensive rucks and mauls,  it's a rugby thing,  but he is going OK and will provide some serious headaches for defences over the next few weeks,  especially anyone that has a weak tackle,  he will find you out.

It was an interesting afternoon,  good to see some college boys playing well,  a couple out injured,  and a couple getting a bit sideways in what they are doing,  just needing a small adjustment in mindset and running line.

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WE DON'T STOP PLAYING BECAUSE WE GROW OLD,  WE GROW OLD BECAUSE WE STOP PLAYING.