On the back of a tight 22-21 victory over State High in last weekend’s opening round, Churchie coach Ryan Schultz wants his side to be more accurate in attack this week after coughing up far too much ball in round one. 

After trailing 14-7 at half time, Churchie scores two tries in five minutes to take the lead, then held out a fast finishing State High outfit who had a chance to steal victory with the final play of the match. 

“The team took a lot of confidence out of the round one win,” Schultz told Rugby News. 

“We had to show a fair bit of character to fight back from a deficit and then also to hold on at the back end of the game. 

“We always knew we were in for a tight tussle and after a poor performance in our last trial, it was really positive to see the guys bounce back and win.”

Last year’s joint premiers, alongside Nudgee and TSS, were far from their best against State High, but Schultz said there were still plenty of positives to take out of the opening round performance. 

“Although State High scored 21 points, I think our defence was probably the best part of our game. It kept us in the match. 

“We had to make over 110 tackles, so there was a lot of defending that had to be done. But towards the end of the game, when fatigue kicked in, we were able to produce a few big moments in defence and that was probably the difference.”

Despite that, the coach knows his side can’t afford to defend for as long as they did in round one throughout this season, which has been tipped to be one of the tightest in recent memory. 

“We need to improve our accuracy with the ball, that’s obvious. We gave the opposition far too many opportunities and far too many chances to play their way into the game. Because of that, we had to work way harder in defence than we should have. 

“We need to be more accurate when we’ve got the ball, and become more consistent at set piece. 

“If we can be cleaner around our lineout and scrum, the execution in attack will come off the back of that.”

Brisbane Grammar were beaten by BBC 39-14 in round one, but after reviewing the game, Schultz said he thought the match was far closer than the scoreline suggests.  

“They were really gritty against BBC. You know any Grammar team and any team coached by Phil Mooney are always going to be very well prepared and very well organised. We won’t be taking them lightly, particularly in the forwards. 

“We know we’ll need to be switched on at set piece time and around the collision zone as well.”

While Churchie aren’t getting ahead of themselves, Schultz knows a strong performance this week can set his side up nicely ahead of tough clashes against BBC and Toowoomba on either side of a round four bye. 

“We are going out each week to win and we’re trying to take things one week at a time, but I think if we can improve on our round one performance and get another win this week, it will help us build confidence heading into some tough fixtures in the coming rounds.”

Elsewhere, Nudgee will open their 2023 campaign at home against Ipswich, Gregory Terrace host TSS and State High travel to play Toowoomba. 

“I’m excited to see how State High bounce back,” Schultz said. 

“We were obviously excited to get the win, but I thought there were a lot of positives in their performance and I think if they can stick together as a team, then they are going to do some damage in this competition.”

“As everyone is talking about, with the tightness of the competition there are going to be interesting results every week and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some upsets or at the very least more tight matches over the weekend.”