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A couple of quick things to let you all know with the start of the rugby season fast approaching.
Firstly, put the following dates in your diary:
Saturday March 8 – 1st Trial v Forest and The Entrance (Venue: Forest Home Ground TBC)
Saturday March 15 – Orange 10’s (Venue: Orange)
Saturday March 22 – Easter Long Weekend – No Rugby Planned
Saturday March 29 – Final Trial v Beecroft and Lindfield (Venue: Kingdome)
Saturday April 5 – 1st Competition Game v TBC (Venue: TBC)
With the first trial next weekend it is very important that we get everyone down to training next week. We will train on Tuesday night at Rushcutters Bay Park and Thursday night at Wentworth Park. The upcoming trial games will be very important this year as we have a number of new players coming down for a run this year and also a new 1st Grade coach in Andy Bowring who obviously has not seen any of us play previously. Performances in this years trials and attendance at training will be first and foremost in the selection process for the 1st competition round on April 5.
It is unfortunate that we have had such a disrupted start to the year because of the weather. Hopefully most of you have been doing your own training in preparation for the start of the season. If not, try and go for a run over the weekend or grab some mates and play some touch footy.
Any questions give me a buzz or drop me an email, otherwise I’ll see you
all Tuesday night.
It was a great way to kick start the year with a mainly social atmosphere enjoyed by all players, officials and spectators involved. The event was held by Colleagues Rugby Club encompassing 24 teams, some travelling from as far as Country NSW, QLD, Singapore and London to participate.
Friday saw the round robin pool games being contested. We had a scratchy start and soon found out that a different strategy was required for the faster 10 a side game. We were convincingly beaten 22-5 by a more powerful and faster side, The Misfits.
We regrouped for our second game a couple of hours later. This was the pool game that we had targeted from the outset as a bit of a grudge match. We were playing the NSW Country Barbarians which contained James Chauncy current Kobbies player) and several others that some of the boys knew. We were pumped up and realised our mistakes from the first game and the type of game we wanted to play. After a solid, physical first half we trailed 5-0 and were lucky not to have had another try scored against us when the half-time siren beat their winger to the try line. Some changes were made for the second half and we pressured their line early and scored next to the posts. KOB’s up 7-5. This would be the full time score and our first win of the tournament, which brought with it alot of confidence after our first up loss.
The final pool game was played 30 minutes after the Country game and we started very sluggishly and let in two first half tries. We ended up going down 15-5 to a team that wanted it more than us. Fitness played its toll too after a very short break between games.
Our results placed us 4th in our pool and one of the top seeds in the Bowl Finals to be held the next day. Saturday would be knock-out games starting with quarter finals.
We started well in our quarter final against BOBS (Breakers Old Boys – and they were old!!!). We were much younger and fitter than our opponents and it showed on the score board as we easily got through to the Semi-Finals. We would later see the BOBS side that we played take out the Over-35’s competition and all players accept their trophy in their budgy smugglers.
We were up against a very fast and young side known as “The Schooners” in the Semi-Final. We had watched them play during the Friday games and thought they had a lot of ticker and would be a good match-up. That proved to be very much the case. Just before kick-off we were boosted by the arrival of James Slattery who would play his only game in the tournament, before missing the Grand Final to visit his girlfriend in Newcastle who had made dinner reservations for their anniversary. Luckily for us he put the dinner back by an hour so that he could play in the Semi, without his barn storming runs through the midfield we would’ve been in trouble. A sour point towards the end of the game was the shoulder injury to Springer, but if it’s any consolation it was a good try saving tackle in our 22. KOB’s win 17-7.
Slatts wasn’t the only player to flee before the final with no less than 3 others unable to stay around. This caused some selection hick-ups with other players also out with injury’s sustained during the weekend, leaving our playing stocks somewhat depleted. Subsequently, we had to recruit a couple of other players from the teams we had beaten – A prop and a great back rower, who we may have even convinced to have a run with Kobbies later this year if his stint with Southern Districts is a failure. We were playing a side called “The Anzacs” in the Grand Final, mainly made up of players from Waverly which gave us a good look at them early in the season as they will be entering the 2nd Division comp this year. Again, it was a close game and we had good ball security and phase play early to land a couple of tries before the break. We would eventually take out the final 22-12 and bring home the first (of many) pieces of silverware for the 2008 Season.
Special thanks must go to Steve Glossop for organising training and taking care of team selections and particularly for playing very well throughout the weekend. I think its safe to say that those involved really enjoyed the event and are getting very excited about the upcoming Orange 10’s tournament in mid-March.
Thanks to those who came down to support throughout the weekend and sorry for the dodgy weather.
Pre-season training starts on Thursday 14th February @ Wentworth Park. 6:30pm for a 7:00pm sharp start. Focus initially will be on some fitness, but largely about getting the ball in hand through ‘one touch touch’ etc. This will obviously progress as we get closer to trials
- Training is on every Thursday
- Bondi 10’s starts this afternoon. Good luck to those playing
- Trial vs Forest and The Entrance @ Forest on Saturday 8th March
- Orange 10’s trip (some 40 blokes have confirmed) on weekend of 15th and 16th March
- Easter break on 22nd March
- Trial vs Beecroft and Lindfield @ The Kingdome on Saturday 29th March
- Round 1 vs TBC on Saturday 5th April
It’ll be a big year and we look forward to seeing as many of you as possible next week. A free BBQ will be provided at The Kauri after training, so tell you wife/girlfriend that you will be home for Valentine’s Day… after footy.
Please don’t be late as we need to get everyone registered to play in the competition, etc. For those only playing on Saturday, please get there by Midday on Saturday so we can get you signed up as well.
For those of you who are not playing in the 10’s, but would be keen to come and show your support for the club, our game times are as follows:
2:30pm – KOBS v Misfits
5:15pm – KOBS v NSW Country
6:05pm – KOBS v Toucans
Finals begin at 1pm on Saturday afternoon.
It would be great to see as many familiar faces down there as we can.
Cheers,
Campbell