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Sweet revenge for NZ
Monday, October 1st, 2007
A try right on fulltime by right centre Sione Tuiloma allowed the New Zealand Students rugby league side to beat the Australian Students 24-20 at the St Mary’s Rugby League Club in Sydney on Saturday night.
The win was sweet revenge for the Kiwi students, who last year, lost to Australia in similar circumstances at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland, as the curtain-raiser to the Kiwis-Kangaroos Tri-Nations Test.
Played in front of a good sized estimated crowd of around 2000, both teams kept each other in check during the first half with some solid play, especially from the big line breaks caused by the New Zealand front rowers.
New Zealand Students went into halftime with a slender 14-10 lead, which could and should have been more, but for the fact that it blew four try scoring opportunities as well as being heavily penalised for being offside many times. The handling of both sides was however good and it was not until the 70th minute of the game before the first unforced error occurred from either side.
New Zealand Students captain Daniel McGregor led by example at loose forward and together with solid performances from second-row George Taunga, standoff Joel Freeman and player of the match and prop Nathan Cleaver, the Kiwi scholars kept a high playing standard in the team.
The final rights and decider of the game came in literally the last minute when the Canterbury University student Tuiloma successfully barged his way over with three opponents on him after the ball had been spun out wide out on the left hand side.
New Zealand Students coach Trevor McLeod was delighted with the result and was pleased with the all-round effort his side had shown in the game.
New Zealand Students 24 (Joel Freeman, Nathan Cleaver, Ben Hurrell, Sione Tuiloma, Wesley Naoupu tries; Riki Horlock 2 goals), Australia Students 20. Halftime: NZS 14-10.
