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Half-time: Kingsway 7-5 Churchlands
Best on Ground: Shane de Mello
People's Best on Ground: Keith Thai
After last week’s 26-0 drubbing from Newman College, Kingsway came into this game desperately needing a win to boost the moral of the team and to get a win on the board (and hopefully help Jeremy Tan have a more memorable 16th Birthday!!). Today’s opponent was Churchlands Senior High School, a former Division One team. Captain Wade Sparg was suffering a shoulder problem and was unavailable to play so Ross Litterick stepped up to take the reins of the team. Under clouds making up their mind wether to rain or not, Kingsway kicked off with a slight breeze behind their backs. A deep kick-off from Byron Sparg lead to some immediate pressure on the Churchlands goal line. A loose ball at the side of the ruck was toed forward by Tim Robertson and carried and grounded over the goal-line by a Churchlands player. The resulting 5m scrum saw Ashley Page repeat almost exactly the same play performed against Lockridge last year and pick up the ball from the base of the scrum and go over for the first try of the game. A brilliant conversion kick from out wide by Byron Sparg meant Kingsway lead 7-0. However, after a good start, the Kingsway team decided to slack off in a stop start affair with lots of knock ons and loose balls. Some bad tackling close to our own goal line led to a penalty only 10m out. A quick tap by a Churchlands player and some shocking defence by Tim Robertson and another forward who were looking in the other direction (!) saw an extremely soft try scored. A missed conversion attempt meant Kingsway was still in the lead 7-5. Some more pressure from a defiant Churchlands team almost saw another try being scored however some good defence by a number of players left the tryline intact. A bit later on, a good kick into open space by Stanley Southwood saw him almost win the race for the ball but loose out to the Churchlands Full-back. Keith Thai proved to be the stand-out player after an uninspiring first-half with most of the team walking grimly to the side-lines.
After some harsh words from the coach at half-time, and some new faces on the team saw the second half begin in a more positive frame of mind. Only a few breakdowns after the kick-off, Shane de Mello employed some of his brilliance from last year to make to find a huge gap on the blind-side and run the best part of ¾ of the field and plonk the ball under the posts. The successful conversion attempt from Byron Sparg meant Kingsway were leading 14-5. And then it happened again, Kingsway decided to go to sleep and some slack defending almost meant another try was conceded, but some good defence on the goal line prevented another 5 pointer. Later on in the half, some good running by first a couple of forwards saw the back-line finally burst into action as the ball was spun wide until Brendan White ended up with the ball to dive over for his first ever try. A missed conversion attempt by Byron Sparg left the scores at 19-5. After the kick off, a loose ball on the edge of the ruck was toed forward by a Kingsway player and Shane de Mello found himself with an open goal-line in front of him. Unfortunately, he was unable to retrieve the ball of the ground and the try went begging. A bit later on, some good pressure by the Kingsway forwards meant possession was coughed up by Churchlands and John Ardeleane managed to go over, with a spice of superman, for a try, just to the left of the uprights. A successful conversion kick by Tim Robertson left Kingsway well in the lead 26-5. And that’s how it ended even after some good running from both Marcus Christie and Adam Litterick who both evaded 3 or 4 tackled before finally being brought into touch. Overall, it was in many ways an average performance by the Crusaders, but a win is a win and Kingsway took the points with lots to work on for next week’s game against Lockridge.