RHYTHM AND STEALTH
Coach
- Messages
- 11,160
From That Guy called Fan In The Stand
Not often do Warriors get back to back reserve grade games here in sydney but this week they find themselves back here to face the Illawarra Steelers down in Wollongong so this week the Fan In The Stands back in the car travelling down the M1 to cheer on the boys.
Id say about 98% of the time ive been to Wollongong it has rained even when i come down here to watch the Breakers dunk all over the Hawks in Summer in the NBL it rains but when i got up this morning the sun was out so im thinking its going to be a fast expansive game. Pack the family in the car grab the aux cord and crank the sounds up Adele instrumental with Tupac rapping over the top and away we went. I checked the Warriors website before we left and said the Albert Vete and Ata Hingano have been added to the team. Awesum news as they are weapons coming into an already dangerous arsenal. Of course though Im gutted that they are not in the first grade team.
Just finished driving down Mt Ousley and about 10 minutes out from WIN stadium when it starts bloody raining so the streak continues grrrrr.
Get there and the boys are out the back field warming up doing drills etc. First instinct is i notice their body language. Focused but calm. Excited to see Ata hopefully carve up. Those that know me know i rate him hugely and in my opinion he is the 2nd best Junior the Warriors have produced in their system. Konrad Hurrell #1 Ata #2 and Johnson at #3. Some people may disagree but yeah nah. I watch Ata and Vete as they do their drills. Lots of talk and are professional. Even though they must be dissapointed not playing first grade after being originally named they dont show it.
We take our seats and their is quite a healthy crowd. Possibly 200-250 people as the local SG Ball and Harold Matthews Cup teams (under 16s and 18s) are in the curtain raiser. The boys come out ready for kick off. I go over the team and see there is massive positional changes as well. Sam Cooks on the wing he was 5/8 last week. Semisi Fotu is 18th man, bit rough as he was the one of the best from last week. Erin Clark starting hooker with Jazz and Roache on the interchange bench. 3 hookers in the team???? But what a good selection headache for Coach Henry to have when his team is in form. Me and the wife cringe at the ground announcer trying to name our Polynesion players in the line up. FFS if you cant say them get someone in there who can or do your bloody research. Teams get named on Tuesdays so put in the work all week. I find it very disrespectfull. These players are professionals how bout you treat them as such. Bye the way its started bucketing down so could be a forward dominated game. And the Steelers have some big boys in Mose Masoe, Hame Sele and Luciano Leilua.
Steelers kick off and we have a safe set and kick on the last. On the Steelers first tackle Mason Lino and Pat Sipley tackle the fullback and clash heads and both stay down. Ref stops play as they get attended to. We defend well and on our next set Ayshford makes a 15m hitup getting out of trouble and gets a penalty. So far so good. From that our forwards march up and we force a goal line drop out but our next set we make an error going for a low % play. Steelers forwards are hitting hard in their line. Can hear the hits from the stands. The Steelers half makes a break on the last and kicks it but Charnze fumbles it but to be fair it was a bullet kick straight to him. Our defence is holding strong but we give away a penalty so the Steelers have a repeat set in our 10. After 11 straight tackles defending the goal line former Warriors Liva Havilli goes over for the first try from dummy half. They convert and we are down 6-0 after 11 minutes. More Steelers pressure sees another goal line drop out to them, we are under the pump but their is an injury to the Steelers that holds the game up for about 5 minutes. Good time to regroup and Rubin Wiki is out there talking heaps and rallying the boys. Composure boys and stick to the defensive structures.
Play restarts and more pressure and another goal line drop out forced. Our goal line is unreal though. We hold out the Steelers again when they put in a grubber but Charnze is there to clean up. Yip another goal line drop out. Again we hold out the relentless pressure as the Steelers put in a chip it ricochets off Matt Allwood into a Steelers player, FMD 6 more tackles. More defence but after 29 straight tackles on our try line it takes a Steelers cross field bomb for them to score their 2nd try. To rub it in they convert from out wide to go up 12-0 after 21 minutes. First sub sees Tevita Satae replace Pat Sipley who has tackled his ass off. Again i cant praise our defence enough as i think we have had next to no ball and when we do have it we are looking dangerous. 2 tries from a quick play the ball dummy half sneak and a cross field bomb, certainly nothing to panic over. Finally we get a couple of sets in possesion as Nathaniel Roache comes on for his first game of the year. 3 tackles later he makes an impact by crashing over for a try and hopefully momentum can turn. Mason misses the kick 12-4 down. After getting points we make an error on the first set after it GRRRRRR. Just what we need more defence but on the 4th tackle we force an error by our defence being up and in. We get possesion and earn a penalty. Setting up a whole set in Steelers half for the first time in ages. We asking heaps of questions and Vete gets tackled 1 metre out but Hingano knocks on when spreading wide. Vete gets subbed after a solid 33 minutes of good defence. Jazz Tavenga on. We march upfield again anforce our own repeat set after an Hingano kick. The following set sees Mason Lino slice and dice wheel and deal and beats 3 before finding our winger #2 Fetalaiga Pauga diving over for an awesum try. Great finish by Pauga who got airbourne. Lino misses the kick from the corner and we head to halftime 12-8 down.
I duck down to the canteen for a pottle of chips and coke zero. Friggen rip off at $11 defiantly sneaking in subway next time. I go over my notes again as the majority of the crowd leaves to go home since all the juniors have finshed and showered up. I look for any other Warriors fans around. Nope just me the wife and Son. Excellent becos that means we have to cheer louder now.
Not often do Warriors get back to back reserve grade games here in sydney but this week they find themselves back here to face the Illawarra Steelers down in Wollongong so this week the Fan In The Stands back in the car travelling down the M1 to cheer on the boys.
Id say about 98% of the time ive been to Wollongong it has rained even when i come down here to watch the Breakers dunk all over the Hawks in Summer in the NBL it rains but when i got up this morning the sun was out so im thinking its going to be a fast expansive game. Pack the family in the car grab the aux cord and crank the sounds up Adele instrumental with Tupac rapping over the top and away we went. I checked the Warriors website before we left and said the Albert Vete and Ata Hingano have been added to the team. Awesum news as they are weapons coming into an already dangerous arsenal. Of course though Im gutted that they are not in the first grade team.
Just finished driving down Mt Ousley and about 10 minutes out from WIN stadium when it starts bloody raining so the streak continues grrrrr.
Get there and the boys are out the back field warming up doing drills etc. First instinct is i notice their body language. Focused but calm. Excited to see Ata hopefully carve up. Those that know me know i rate him hugely and in my opinion he is the 2nd best Junior the Warriors have produced in their system. Konrad Hurrell #1 Ata #2 and Johnson at #3. Some people may disagree but yeah nah. I watch Ata and Vete as they do their drills. Lots of talk and are professional. Even though they must be dissapointed not playing first grade after being originally named they dont show it.
We take our seats and their is quite a healthy crowd. Possibly 200-250 people as the local SG Ball and Harold Matthews Cup teams (under 16s and 18s) are in the curtain raiser. The boys come out ready for kick off. I go over the team and see there is massive positional changes as well. Sam Cooks on the wing he was 5/8 last week. Semisi Fotu is 18th man, bit rough as he was the one of the best from last week. Erin Clark starting hooker with Jazz and Roache on the interchange bench. 3 hookers in the team???? But what a good selection headache for Coach Henry to have when his team is in form. Me and the wife cringe at the ground announcer trying to name our Polynesion players in the line up. FFS if you cant say them get someone in there who can or do your bloody research. Teams get named on Tuesdays so put in the work all week. I find it very disrespectfull. These players are professionals how bout you treat them as such. Bye the way its started bucketing down so could be a forward dominated game. And the Steelers have some big boys in Mose Masoe, Hame Sele and Luciano Leilua.
Steelers kick off and we have a safe set and kick on the last. On the Steelers first tackle Mason Lino and Pat Sipley tackle the fullback and clash heads and both stay down. Ref stops play as they get attended to. We defend well and on our next set Ayshford makes a 15m hitup getting out of trouble and gets a penalty. So far so good. From that our forwards march up and we force a goal line drop out but our next set we make an error going for a low % play. Steelers forwards are hitting hard in their line. Can hear the hits from the stands. The Steelers half makes a break on the last and kicks it but Charnze fumbles it but to be fair it was a bullet kick straight to him. Our defence is holding strong but we give away a penalty so the Steelers have a repeat set in our 10. After 11 straight tackles defending the goal line former Warriors Liva Havilli goes over for the first try from dummy half. They convert and we are down 6-0 after 11 minutes. More Steelers pressure sees another goal line drop out to them, we are under the pump but their is an injury to the Steelers that holds the game up for about 5 minutes. Good time to regroup and Rubin Wiki is out there talking heaps and rallying the boys. Composure boys and stick to the defensive structures.
Play restarts and more pressure and another goal line drop out forced. Our goal line is unreal though. We hold out the Steelers again when they put in a grubber but Charnze is there to clean up. Yip another goal line drop out. Again we hold out the relentless pressure as the Steelers put in a chip it ricochets off Matt Allwood into a Steelers player, FMD 6 more tackles. More defence but after 29 straight tackles on our try line it takes a Steelers cross field bomb for them to score their 2nd try. To rub it in they convert from out wide to go up 12-0 after 21 minutes. First sub sees Tevita Satae replace Pat Sipley who has tackled his ass off. Again i cant praise our defence enough as i think we have had next to no ball and when we do have it we are looking dangerous. 2 tries from a quick play the ball dummy half sneak and a cross field bomb, certainly nothing to panic over. Finally we get a couple of sets in possesion as Nathaniel Roache comes on for his first game of the year. 3 tackles later he makes an impact by crashing over for a try and hopefully momentum can turn. Mason misses the kick 12-4 down. After getting points we make an error on the first set after it GRRRRRR. Just what we need more defence but on the 4th tackle we force an error by our defence being up and in. We get possesion and earn a penalty. Setting up a whole set in Steelers half for the first time in ages. We asking heaps of questions and Vete gets tackled 1 metre out but Hingano knocks on when spreading wide. Vete gets subbed after a solid 33 minutes of good defence. Jazz Tavenga on. We march upfield again anforce our own repeat set after an Hingano kick. The following set sees Mason Lino slice and dice wheel and deal and beats 3 before finding our winger #2 Fetalaiga Pauga diving over for an awesum try. Great finish by Pauga who got airbourne. Lino misses the kick from the corner and we head to halftime 12-8 down.
I duck down to the canteen for a pottle of chips and coke zero. Friggen rip off at $11 defiantly sneaking in subway next time. I go over my notes again as the majority of the crowd leaves to go home since all the juniors have finshed and showered up. I look for any other Warriors fans around. Nope just me the wife and Son. Excellent becos that means we have to cheer louder now.