Shore and Joeys played out a thrilling 28-all draw at Northbridge in the pick of the round two matches, while Kings and Riverview set up a bumper top of the table clash next weekend with impressive victories over Newington and Scots respectively. 

Catch up on all the action from another brilliant weekend of GPS first XV action. 

Shore 28-28 Joeys

A brilliant maul and some clutch goal kicking from scrumhalf Hugo Orpin helped Shore hold Joeys to their second draw in as many weeks, in a match the home side were unlucky not to win. 

After a disappointing first round loss to Kings, Shore started quickly and scored from a well constructed driving maul inside 2 minutes to take a 7-0 lead. 

Joeys hit back in the 14th minute when centre Ethan Tombs turned his defender inside out, then threw a lovely long ball to winger Caleb Murphy to score in the corner. 

Tombs was in the action again minutes later. The centre broke a tackle in the midfield and linked with Joeys’ skipper Hwi Sharples to give the visitors a 14-7 lead after 18 minutes. 

Shore turned to their maul again to level the scores first, then to retake the lead late in the first half. 

In the 20th minute, the Shore forwards produced a clever short lineout play, that saw prop Finn Baxter attack the short side from the back of the maul and pass to hooker James Warner who showed good strength to score in the corner. 

Shore then scored from a more conventional driving maul to take a 21-14 lead. 

But Joeys had the final say in a high-scoring first half. Following a clever scoot from Sharples, Joeys spread the ball to fullback Patrick Broe who scored in the corner to level the scores at the break. 

Impressively, four of the six first half tries were converted from close to the sideline by Shore’s Orpin and Joeys’ Sharples. 

The second half was a tighter affair with both sides missing opportunities to score close to their lines. 

Joeys took the lead with just over 10 minutes remaining on the back of a strong run from lock James McCreery. Sharples then threw a nice pass to Broe on the touchline and the fullback raced away to score. 

With three minutes remaining, Shore responded once again. With their scrum going backwards, scrumhalf Orpin scooted down the short side and passed to Marshall Le Maitre. Orpin then converted from the sideline, once again, to level the scores with just minutes remaining. 

The home side attacked deep in Joeys’ territory in the dying stages and appeared to have earned a kickable penalty, but after conferring with his touch judge, the referee blew full time, ending the match in a thrilling 28-28 draw. 

Kings 33-24 Newington. 

Kings held off a fast finishing Newington outfit at Stanmore to claim their second straight win and remain one of two undefeated sides in 2023

The visitors dominated the opening 30 minutes and led 19-0 following three unanswered tries. 

Flyhalf Boston Fakafanua opened the scoring with a big left foot step near the Newington line, before scrumhalf Lachlan Smith threw a nice flat ball to hooker Bailey Park to give Kings a 14-0 lead. 

Smith then produced a clever wrap around play and threw another ‘very’ flat pass to put centre Tom Watts in space. Watts linked with Hadley Jackson and Kings took a 21-point lead. 

Newington hit back late in the first half through lock Jacob Veiru but that good work looked to be undone early in the second half, when Hadley Jackson found space out wide and scored his second of the afternoon to give Kings a 26-7 lead. 

Newington needed some spark and they found it with a great counter attack try set up by fullback Toby Rodwell. 

After receiving a kick inside his own half, Rodwell showed good speed to beat two defenders then passed to winger Luke Avati who scored to get the home side back in the match. 

Big centre Mateo Cleverley then broke a tackle near Kings’ line to score and suddenly the deficit was just seven points with 15 minutes remaining. 

Momentum was well and truly behind Newington in the final 10 minutes as the ball started to bounce their way. 

Flyhalf Matt Humphries scooped up a loose ball deep inside Kings’ half and offloaded to Cleverley who scored his second try in 10 minutes to bring the scores to 26-24. 

But with the match in the balance in the final minutes, Kings’ two best on Saturday stood up again. 

No.9 Smith kicked downfield and into space cleverly and the ball popped up in between Tonga and Newington fullback Rodwell. Tonga, with a bigger body, regathered the ball and ran away to score under the posts and seal a hard fought 33-26 victory. 

Riverview 43-24 Scots

Riverview scored two tries in two minutes midway through their second half clash against Scots at Bellevue Hill to set up an impressive 43-24 victory and continue their unbeaten start to 2023. 

Scots opened the scoring with a try from a driving maul, before Iggies took control scoring first on the back of some good footwork by flyhalf Joe Dillon, then through young winger Tom Hartmann who finished off a nice ball movement to score the first of his three tries of the afternoon. 

After leading 12-5 at the break, Hartmann crossed for his second just minutes in to the second half after his fullback used footwork to attract three defenders, then offloaded to Hartmann who scored untouched. 

Scots returned to their maul to fight their way back into the match and reduced the deficit to just seven points with a try from a five metre line out. 

But Riverview quickly delivered a 1-2 knockout blow. 

No.8 Liam Sullivan scored from the back of a dominant scrum in the 50th minute. Then from the kick off, centre Liam Grover capitalised on a dropped ball from the Scots winger and raced away to score his side’s second try in as many minutes to hand his side a 31-12 lead. 

Scots hit back with a try from close range in the 62nd minute but Riverview sealed the victory when Dillon threw a lovely, but very flat, 20 metre cut-out ball to Hartmann on the wing, who crossed for his third try to give the visitors a 36-17 lead. 

Both sides scored late tries to keep the scoreboard attended busy, but the result was close to certain from midway through the second half. 

Riverview face Kings, the only other undefeated side, this Saturday in round three.