The Annual Tom Anderton Rugby League Shield between Edmund Rice College and Holy Spirit College was held on Monday 20th June at the University of Wollongong. The day consists of 4 games, with the U13, U14, U15 & Opens all in action. The College were able to retain the shield of another year! Many thanks to Mr Preeo, Mr Sunderland, Mr Marsh and Mr Fowler for coaching the teams.
13’s:
U13 ERC team comprehensively defeated Holy Spirit College in the Tom Anderton Shield 44-6. Earlier in the year – just as the rain started – 44 boys trained before the first squad was to be selected. In very wet and muddy conditions on Keira Park we managed to hold a selection trial and name a squad of 19 players for this event. The squad trained regularly in Term 2, even though the conditions were poor and mums and dads suffered excessive washing of clothes after each training.
Ably led by Captain and Player of the Match, Jeremy Packer, the team controlled the ball well, made plenty of metres up the centre with a powerful running game, spread the ball nicely to the fringes and defended stoically working together as a solid unit. Tries; Cale Parr, Jeremy Packer 2; Callum Cooney 3; Fletcher Couchman, Zain Ashcroft; Goals; Jeremy Packer 4; Levi Fein; Nate Jennett.
Mr Preeo
14’s:
The U14 game was 25 minutes each half and after a quick team talk from our coach we were ready to compete. With the ground being wet and muddy our aim was to keep it simple and focus on our passes. Our team chose to receive and the whistle sounded marking the beginning of the game.
The game started with Fletcher Potter taking the first hit up to set the platform for the rest of the set. The first 5 minutes was an arm wrestle after an early mistake from Holy Spirit, Edmund Rice were on the attack, only being 5 meters out from the tryline. A short ball from our hooker sent Jack Manns over the line for our first try. With the goal being unsuccessful from our kicker the score was 4-0. As we reset our line and got ready for the kick off, the ball was kicked down to our right end where it was taken by Baxter Towle and offloaded to Fletcher. After two more hit ups, our second try came from our fullback Cooper Morrison. With an unlucky angle the kick was once again unsuccessful. Fresh onto the field Dylan Bagnall caught the ball off the kickoff and ran the whole length of the field, scoring under the post for an easy conversion by Creighton Meafou. Just before half time our forwards worked hard and forced an error off the scrum, with our halfback nearly breaking the line and getting an offload to Cooper for his second try.
As the hooter sounded we jogged over to our coach Mr Sunderland, we were told to stick to our game plan and keep working together. We ran back on the field for the last 25 minutes of the game. It was our kick off and we managed to keep our high standards from the first half going into the second. Off a handy offload by one of our forwards our halfback threw a cut out ball to our winger Tyler Tagliapietra who scored in the corner. In the end the game resulted in a 42-0 win for ERC.
Written by Hamish Lepp, Max Fife & Jack Manns
15’s:
In a hard fought battle, Holy Spirit got the better of the Edmund Rice U/15 side by a scoreline of 26-4. Capitalising on early errors in the wet and muddy conditions, Holy Spirit shot out to an early 12-0 lead which was near impossible to peg back. Mid way through the second half, after some creative dummy half work by Bayden Reh, Archie Wheeler burst through a gap, evaded the fullback running 50 metres for a fantastic try. Whilst highlights were few and far between this was an outstanding Rugby League try!!!
Mr Marsh
Open’s:
The Open’s team were fired up for their last chance to represent the College in Rugby League this year in the annual Tom Anderton Shield. For the Year 12 students, this was their final opportunity to don the ERC Rugby League jersey. Even though they were down on numbers, Holy Spirit did not roll over, running and tackling hard from the opening whistle making for a fairly even first half. The score was 4-4 at the break thanks to a nice run and score by Vinny Valentinetti. As the rain eased off the boys started to pick up their play, scoring early in the second half to make it 10-4, Vinny scoring again under the posts thanks to a clever kick by Callum Mcenearney.
The game then fell victim to silly turnovers and penalties making both coaches fairly nervous. This all changed when Jack Atkins made a phenomenal defensive play, rushing in from his wing to intercept the ball on our own 30 meter line and then racing away to score under the posts. This play proved to be pivotal as Holy Spirit controversially scored in the corner fairly late in the game. Final score Edmund Rice 16, Holy Spirit 8.
Callum Mcenearney earned player of the match honors for his brilliant passing and kicking game. Our core Year 12 team members also did the College extremely proud putting in 110% all game. Balunn Simon and Vinny Valentinetti captained the side and led from the front for the 60minutes. Kane Davison, Harrison Hooper and Justin Andraos did all the dirty work in the middle. Finally, Zane Taylor, Billy Foster and Lucas Deane put in solid performances on the day as well. Massive thank you to Mr Timpano and Mr Hopkins (Holy Spirit) for putting in the hours to organise the day. And a big thanks to Peter Hooper for taking time out of his busy schedule to help with training the boys and assisting on game day. Looking forward to the next one!
Mr Fowler
