Newington coach Tim Rapp knows his side is going into Saturday’s clash against undefeated competition leaders’ Kings as underdogs. 

But the Newington boys are okay with that. Because underdogs often win and Rapp has come up with a clever way to get that point across to his side this week. 

“All the boys at school are really in to playing online chess at the moment, so we’ve used that to build a theme for this week against Kings and the boys have responded to it really well,” Rapp told Rugby News. 

“In a game of chess, every piece on the board can beat the King and that’s what we’re aiming to do this weekend. 

“It doesn’t matter what piece on the board you are, you can beat the King with Check Mate and win the game.”

Like all the GPS schools, Newington had plenty of players representing the school in the various representative matches played throughout the July school holidays. 

But as Rapp explained, Newington has also had players away at the Australian Rugby League Championships in recent weeks, impacting his side for this weekend. 

“We’ve got three different pathways for our boys to play representative footy in some form each year and I think that’s fantastic, but it does present some risk and unfortunately this year a few of our better performing players so far this season have suffered injuries and will miss the rest of the year. 

“But the positive from that is that it’s opened up some opportunities for some other boys and I’m really looking forward to watching how those boys perform. 

“We’ve had to change out style a little bit, but everyone seems really committed to finishing this season strongly and shaking up the competition by beating sides above us on the ladder.”

Newington sit fifth on the GPS first XV ladder but have been competitive in all but one match this season. Of the side’s four losses this year, three have been by a margin of less than 10 points. 

“Although we’re 2-4, we’ve been really pleased with our defence,” Rapp told Rugby News. 

“We’re actually ranked third in the competition in defence and we’re only just behind the sides ranked first and second. 

“Our execution has been the thing that has let us down. We haven’t executed when we’ve had opportunities deep in the opposition’s territory and that’s something we need to fix in these next four games. 

“We’re a side that wants to play with the ball, probably a bit more than some of the other sides and we’ve done that well this year, but obviously that creates a bit of risk. 

“If we can improve out execution a little, I think we’ll get a lot more pay out of the attacking style that we’ve shown we can play with.”

Rapp was full of praise for the Jimmy Hilgendorf and Hugh Perrett coached Kings’ side, who are yet to be beaten this season, but said his coaching staff have a few plans of their own to try and disrupt the competition leaders on Saturday. 

“They’ve been very dominant right across the park all season, there’s no denying that. 

“But I think there’s an opportunity for us to play with the ball through our forwards a little more than we have so far this year. 

“Because Kings are such a well structured defensive side, if we can throw a bit of variety at them, we might be able to move them around a bit and find a weak shoulder to attack at.”

Newington travel to face Kings on Saturday. In the rounds other matches, third placed Scots face second placed Riverview in a competition defining match and Joeys host Shore.