Forty20
First Grade
- Messages
- 7,677
Just caught the replay of yesterday's final. Both teams were guilty of some silly handling errors and cheap penalties for lazy high shots but I thought it was a decent game for the most part.
Obviously our defence was far from water tight given that we leaked 26 points but there were some crucial times when the Broncos had extended runs of possession that we aimed up and held them out. We were punished several times when they turned the ball back inside and caught out some slacking defenders so that will be an area that we need to address.
Kelepi Tanginoa was excellent up the middle and then superb when he shifted to the right edge later in the game. He ran good lines at speed but some credit must go to Zach Dockar-Clay who used him well (and played quite well on the whole) and gave him quality ball. I don't mind the Cowboys and I would love to see Kelepi kick on so hopefully things work out for him up North.
He wasn't as flashy as Tanginoa but I thought that Tui Kamikamica was very strong up the middle. Got through a mountain of work on both sides of the ball and was particularly busy in defence, cleaning up the missed tackles of his team mates up the middle. With the return of Tepai Tepu-Smith we now have a truly formidable front row rotation as well as the luxury of sending Tanginoa to the edges later in the game.
Both our halves were strong, which is to be expected of Ryan Matterson at this point but pleasingly Zach Dockar-Clay played a game that involved equal parts attacking genius and decisive shot-calling. There were some handling errors marked against both their names that came from some sloppy dummy half work but along with Nathan Davis, who chimed in regularly at first receiver, they controlled the team well.
Beyond the players above there were some solid cameos from Jordan Muna, who got away some amazing offloads and Tyrell Fuimaono, who had one stupid offload on his goal line but was a handful with the ball in hand. Fuimaono is one of our most hyped prospects coming through and has noticeably grown in his first season in the NYC. Halauafu Lavaka also notched up his 26th try of the year and did plenty of grunt work coming out of our half in the absence of Leva Li.
Obviously our defence was far from water tight given that we leaked 26 points but there were some crucial times when the Broncos had extended runs of possession that we aimed up and held them out. We were punished several times when they turned the ball back inside and caught out some slacking defenders so that will be an area that we need to address.
Kelepi Tanginoa was excellent up the middle and then superb when he shifted to the right edge later in the game. He ran good lines at speed but some credit must go to Zach Dockar-Clay who used him well (and played quite well on the whole) and gave him quality ball. I don't mind the Cowboys and I would love to see Kelepi kick on so hopefully things work out for him up North.
He wasn't as flashy as Tanginoa but I thought that Tui Kamikamica was very strong up the middle. Got through a mountain of work on both sides of the ball and was particularly busy in defence, cleaning up the missed tackles of his team mates up the middle. With the return of Tepai Tepu-Smith we now have a truly formidable front row rotation as well as the luxury of sending Tanginoa to the edges later in the game.
Both our halves were strong, which is to be expected of Ryan Matterson at this point but pleasingly Zach Dockar-Clay played a game that involved equal parts attacking genius and decisive shot-calling. There were some handling errors marked against both their names that came from some sloppy dummy half work but along with Nathan Davis, who chimed in regularly at first receiver, they controlled the team well.
Beyond the players above there were some solid cameos from Jordan Muna, who got away some amazing offloads and Tyrell Fuimaono, who had one stupid offload on his goal line but was a handful with the ball in hand. Fuimaono is one of our most hyped prospects coming through and has noticeably grown in his first season in the NYC. Halauafu Lavaka also notched up his 26th try of the year and did plenty of grunt work coming out of our half in the absence of Leva Li.
