After a disappointing opening night to the 2025 CAS season, Waverley bounced back last week but will need to win this weekend against rivals Cranbrook to keep the school’s title hopes alive. 

Waverley were ambushed by an impressive Trinity outfit in a Friday night match at Southern Districts in the opening round, but bounced back to put a big score on Aloys last weekend. 

“We didn’t adapt to the conditions on a wet night down at Forshaw against Trinity and that was disappointing,” Waverley coach Lachlan Drew-Morris told Rugby News. 

“But we’ve taken that loss in our stride and tried to use it as motivation to find improvement in our game, which I think we were able to do based on our next performance against Aloys. 

“Everything went to hand and the first 20 or 30 minutes set us up nicely for the rest of the match. Now we’ve got to turn our focus to Cranbrook and find more improvement again.”

While few expected Aloys to challenge Waverley last weekend, Drew-Morris said the win remained an important one for his team’s psyche heading into the crucial closing rounds of the short CAS season. 

“We had that really good win against Scots in our last trial and were flying pretty high after that. But just as one win doesn’t define a team, one loss doesn’t necessarily make or break a season either. 

“So I was pleased that the boys were able to bounce back quickly and rediscover their confidence and attacking flair.”

Drew-Morris said he was expecting a tough afternoon against a Cranbrook side who traditionally find their best each year for the eastern suburbs derby. 

“I don’t feel as though the scoreline really reflected last week’s match between Cranbrook and Knox. 

“Cranbrook held a lot of the ball, controlled most of that game and were probably a bit unlucky in some circumstances. So, we’re well aware that they can play some really good footy and they’ll be coming down to Queen’s Park looking for a win.”

Heading into the middle round of the five week CAS competition, which doubles as qualification for the inaugural CAS/ISA combined competition in term three, Barker lead the competition with two wins, with Waverley, Knox, Trinity and Cranbrook all just two competition points behind the reigning premiers. 

If Waverley can win on Saturday, they’ll need to beat Knox and Barker in the final two rounds to claim this year’s title. 

“We’ve just got to focus on this week first and hopefully get to the June long weekend with our premiership hopes alive,” Drew-Morris explained. 

“We then have a lot of our boys playing in the State Championships next week, so we’ll have to wait and see how they get through that, then we’ll plan out our final two matches and hopefully play our best rugby of the year when it matters most.”

In the round’s other matches, Trinity host Knox and Aloys take on Barker.