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Aussies overcome Brave Kiwis
Friday, August 19th, 2005
An inability to make effect first up tackles and not being able to spread the ball wide resulted in the New Zealand Universities Student World Cup rugby league side going down 32-16 to Australia Universities at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane last night.
The match was the first of two curtain-raisers before the deciding State of Origin match and like the Queenslanders, NZU failed to have sufficient ball to get the points on board. After keeping the Australians out scoreless for the first quarter, NZU then suffered a horror eleven minute period in which they made three fundamental errors that led to three tries.
The first came after the ball had been sent out by scrumhalf Chad Bucky to the loose forward Clint Lovering, before offloading Jordan Atkins, who cut back in from an angled run to go over unmarked for a converted try. A few minutes later saw the NZU side hover around the Australian line, before a Kiwi chip kick into open space resulted in wing Kevin Stephenson collecting up the loose ball and running 95m to the other line for an unconverted try by sheer pace.
Australia Universities collected its third and final try of the first half in the 31st minute when a great solo break by Atkins resulted in the University of South Queensland going over for a fine try, that like his first was converted by his team-mate Lovering. New Zealand Universities however managed to regroup in the last few minutes before the break when the Otago University wing Sam Jacobson offloaded to his provincial team-mate and substitute second-row George Taunga right on the halftime hooter for an unconverted try.
Australia Universities led 16-4 at halftime and widened the margin again early in the second half when its other wing Nathan Tolley showed his strength in going over between the attempted tackles of second-row James Koloamatangi and scrumhalf Jamie McDonald. The remainder of the third quarter was all green and gold as the home side took advantage of a more favourable penalty count that led to Stephenson scoring his second try and hooker Chris Fleming beating Daniel McGregor’s attempted tackle for Australia’s sixth and final try of the game.
Australia Universities went into the final quarter with a 32-4, but any hopes of being able to get to a half century mark was dashed as NZU showed its best passage of play in the whole game in the remaining 20 minutes. A fine pass by NZU captain Andrew Auimatagi out wide resulted in the Victoria University inside centre Mike Nathan going over in the 62nd minute, which was converted by his hooker Jimmy O’Brien. NZU scored its third and final try of the game three minutes later after O’Brien offloaded to the fullback Paul Atkins, who beat three defenders over from a strong run 10m out from the line. O’Brien failed to convert that left NZU trailing 32-14 with just ten minutes remaining in a game that had been shorted to two 35 minute halves by the Australian authorities, who were concerned that the game would encroach too much into the minute detail of the State of Origin buildup.
NZU coach Trevor McLeod made no excuses for his side’s loss and said his team’s poor support play resulted in giving Australia a flattering scoreline. “The score was closer that what it finally suggested,†he said. “However we were let down by lapses of concentration on defence and not having the support play that we wanted.â€
Taunga was named the NZU player of the day for some hard working hitups and tackles while Aumatagi, Atkins and Koloamatangi were also solid NZU performers. New Zealand Universities now regroups before its final pool match against Scotland this Sunday at Griffith University’s Nathan Campus at 3.35pm (5.45pm NZ time).
Scores: Australia Universities 32 (Jordan Atkins 2, Kevin Stephenson 2, Nathan Tolley, Chris Fleming tries; Clint Lovering 3, Jonathan Crawley goals), New Zealand Universities 14 (George Taunga, Mike Nathan, Paul Atkins tries; Jimmy O’Brien goal). Halftime: AU 16-6.
The other pool match played yesterday resulted in Wales beating Scotland 31-16 at Griffith University’s Nathan Campus after narrowly leading 11-4 at halftime. Wales 31 (Neil Davies 2, Dean Scully, Dewi Scourfield, Andrew Bond tries; Scully 5 goals, Geraint Davies field goal), Scotland 16 (Dougie Flockhart 2, Mike Murphy tries; Andy McPhail 2 goals). Halftime: Wales 11-4.
