Scots held on to claim an incredible 21-15 victory over Kings at Bellevue Hill on Saturday afternoon in the opening round of the 2021 GPS season. 

In one of the more remarkable finishes to a schoolboy game in recent memory, Kings had numerous opportunities to score what could have been a match winning try in the final minutes, but Scots were able to hold an to secure an important win. 

Trailing 21-10 with five minutes remaining, Kings’ winger Toby Stewart showed good speed to score in the corner and set up a grand stand finish. 

The visitors regained possession from a scrappy lineout and worked their way into Scots’ territory but pushed one too many passes in attack and handed the ball back to Scots. 

Kings then won a scrum against the feed to create another opportunity but handling errors once again cost the visitors. 

In the 69th minute, Kings won a penalty but failed to kick the ball into touch, then still had one last opportunity in attack. 

Flyhalf Ben Dufficy, in his competition debut, split the defence and threw an accurate long ball to winger Riley Hemsworth. 

Hemsworth charged towards the left corner but ran into Scots winger Terrell Kalokalo, covering from the other wing, just metres from the try line. 

Kalokalo’s ball and all tackle knocked Hemsworth into touch and secured a brave win for the home side. 

At Stanmore, Joeys hooker Paddy Burns claimed a first half hatrick within the opening half hour to help his side claim a 38-13 victory over Newington. 

Burns’ first two tries were scored in opposite corners, with the hooker turned winger, crossing on the end of well worked line out moves. 

The No.2 then returned to a more traditional role and scored from a driving maul in the 26th minute to hand Joeys a 17-3 lead. 

After trailing 24-3 at the half, Newington crossed twice in the second half but the 38-13 result was never really in question. 

Riverview also opened their season with a victory but were forced to work for their two competition points. 

The home side led 12-0 early before Shore hit back to level the scores at half time. Riverview showed too much class in the second half though and scored four unanswered tries in claim a 36-12 win. 

Flyhalf Jack Bowen scored two tries for Riverview, with Liam Dempsey, Will Perkins, Felix Connors and Liam Grover also crossing for five pointers.