by Paul Cook –

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THE WARM-UP:

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As with the earlier 4th grade final, this was another title decider that wouldn’t feature either of the top two teams from the regular season. In fact, five of the eight finalists across the day came from outside those precious top two placings, a perfect illustration of how all bets are off when it comes to finals footy.

In this case, Randwick (3rd) were taking on a Sydney University (4th) side whom they had already beaten three times in 2015, backing up their home and away victories in round seven (34-28) and round 12 (22-17), with an emphatic 40-12 dispatching in week one of the finals series. As a result, they adopted the favourites tag but faced a Uni side hell bent on ensuring that the Students’ trophy cabinet would not end the season without a grade title.

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THE BREAKDOWN:

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Anyone who has watched Uni’s 1st or 2nd grade side over the last few years would not be surprised to learn that it was the boot of Byron Hodge that opened the scoring. The Varsity’s all-time leading point-scorer is the best goal-kicking Australian lock since a certain John Eales (Warringah’s Tristan Stanley may argue!) and he never looked like missing when gifted a shot at the posts after only four minutes.

Randwick responded in kind a few minutes later, Chris Taripo dissecting the uprights to level matters. But it was the Students who continued to call most of the shots and when centre Chris Ingate found himself in space in the 12th minute, a neat step and a race to the line brought the opening try.

The reliable Hodge added two more for a 10-3 lead, but was then unusually errant – despite the tyranny of distance – with a penalty towards the end of an opening quarter in which the Wicks had seen precious little ball.

Choked inside their own half for the majority of the opening stanza, the rare forays that they were able to muster showed plenty of promise but as yet, no end product. Uni meanwhile, were warming to the task and after another period of pressure got them within range in the 35th minute, it was the nimble feet and vision of fullback Matthew Narracott that opened the door for Matthew Philip to power over in the corner for his side’s second.

Hodge’s conversion left Randwick facing an uphill task in the shadows of half-time, trailing 17-3. But they say the most important moments in any match are the five minutes either side of the break, and on this occasion, those minutes proved to be the difference between the Galloping Greens fading into obscurity or fighting their way back into the contest.

With just two minutes left before oranges, Lewie Catt – who faced the British & Irish Lions two years ago as part of the Combined Country team – arced his way into space and put a lovely dummy up for his winger before switching inside for the run home.

Taripo converted to make it 17-10 and send the ‘favourites’ to the sheds on a high and they continued in much the same vein after the restart. Thriving off their freshly injected confidence boost, the Wicks pressed right from the whistle and after a rare bout of prolonged possession, manoeuvred themselves into a position where flyhalf Kodie Hawkins eventually found the line – although Taripo’s missed conversion prevented a level scoreboard.

Uni lock Matthew Philip on the charge – Photo: J.B Photography

But just as Randwick looked like they had the momentum for the first time in the match, they ceded occupancy back to their opponents. Uni attacked, isolated a pod of myrtle green jerseys and when the ball was sent wide, skipper James Swan was on hand to gleefully dive home. 22-15.

Any remaining shackles were now well and truly off as the second half developed into an exciting end-to-end encounter, both sides chancing their arm in search of further scores but leaving themselves vulnerable to the counter in the process.

A penalty pushed past the posts by Taripo in the 50th minute was a missed opportunity but the Wicks were clicking into a potent attacking groove and it was no surprise when they went in for their third five-pointer two minutes later, Tristan Goodbody the beneficiary of a tap-and-go penalty to power his way over from a metre.

New man Andrew Deegan – not a bad replacement to call on – added the extras to put his side level. And they grabbed the lead for the first time in the match on the hour, when a great advert for the running game ended with a tidy finish from Latu Latunipulu – an event that subsequently kick-started a melee of handbags at five paces before normality was restored.

Having led by two converted tries earlier in the match, finding themselves somehow 7pts down with a quarter of the game remaining must have been a bitter pill for Uni to swallow. But showing their trademark resilience, they eked their way back to near parity through pressure, preying on the Wicks’ ill discipline and letting Byron Hodge’s boot do the rest, and two penalties later it was 29-28.

But back came the Wicks and with a touch under 10 minutes remaining, they looked to have struck a match-winning blow when they concocted try number five. No.8 George Harrison got the ball rolling, steaming his way down the sideline from his own half before smashing his way over a Uni defender. The ball was recycled coast-to-coast before the dangerous Taripo dummied and put on the afterburners to reach the chalk.

Deegan couldn’t complement the score from out wide but with the clock ticking down, a six point advantage had the Wicks firmly in the box seat, much to the delight of not only the Randwick faithful, but also the Manly, Eastwood and Easts contingent in the crowd.

But hell hath no fury like a Student scorned, and, with Uni’s 1st, 3rd and 4th grades all having succumbed to defeat at the semi-final stage the week before, it fell to 2’s to rouse themselves for one last stirring effort in order to preserve the club’s honour.

Two-try scorer Chris Ingate blazes a trail for the Students – Photo: J.B Photography

Chris Ingate had been shooing away the attentions of the club doctor a couple of minutes earlier, the usual ‘I’m fine, honest’ act that rugby players ritually proffer through ignorance, innocence or sheer bloody-mindedness after a head knock.

But when the ball arrived in his grasp in Randwick’s red zone in the 74th minute, any lingering fuzz was rendered obsolete as he weighed up the situation before punishing a misread with a step off his left and a joyous sprint and slide home to leave a one point ball game.

Up stepped Mr Dependable – Hodge – who crossed the black dot with consummate ease to wrest a fragile 35-34 advantage back the way of his side, as myrtle green clad shoulders visibly slumped.

There was still time for more late drama, the Wicks earning a penalty from the restart some five metres inside their own half. But a bold option to go for the posts and for glory didn’t pay dividends as replacement Tom Hiddleston’s kick fell short, allowing Uni to run down the clock and end a thrilling contest as victors.

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THE WASH-UP:

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Sydney University skipper James Swan:

“Our big focus this week was the first 20 minutes, the last couple of times we’ve played them they’ve built a lot of scoreboard pressure on us and made us chase the game so we wanted them chasing us this time and we knew once we got to the end of the game it was crunch time, and we had enough legs to hold on and get the win. We were down by six with five to go but we knew that if we just kept applying pressure that we could come away with something – thank God we had Chris Ingate on our side!

“There’s some great players playing 2nd grade, guys like Matty Narracott and Matty Philip, they’ll hopefully be pushing for contracts in a few years, so it’s high quality footy and that Randwick side has beaten us three times this year. They’re a phenomenal side and I think they’ve got plenty more to come over the next couple of years.

“They’re a very dangerous team, the two wingers, the 12, the 10 who came on – Deegan – he’s a good footballer, so they caused us a lot of problems but our line speed was good today and held them out on a number of occasions. Randwick were terrific again and full credit to them but thankfully we got the win.

“I think having lost to them three times took the pressure off us a bit. A lot of times with Uni, the pressure is on you and teams are out to get you but this time, we were a bit more relaxed, we had nothing to lose and it worked a treat today. I’m just thankful we got the job done and it’s a good way to finish up my last season I think. When I started I thought Tom Carter would be retired long before me but he’s seven years older than me and I’m going at probably the same time as him!”

Photo: J.B Photography

Randwick skipper Harry Boileau:

“It’s devastating. We’ve put our heart and soul into this team all season, dealt with boys coming in and out all the time and we’ve stuck together as a really strong group with a great coaching staff around us, but we’re gutted after that.

“We struggled exiting in the first half and didn’t really play well in their 50 but we got away with one try and a penalty that kept us in there and when we turned around in the second half we had a bit of wind behind us and created a few more opportunities. I think when we had the ball and rolled around the corner we did capitalise but we just went away from that a few too many times and didn’t play in their half enough to punish their mistakes.

“I think concentration might have been an issue after we scored near the end. We came back and maybe had a bit too much excitement thinking about the end result instead of finishing the game as we should have, but you can’t look back now.

“I thought the decision to kick the penalty at the end came from the sideline – I saw the tee coming out and figured they’d made that decision – but maybe I had a bit of a brain snap on the field and should have questioned it. However, Tom Hiddleston is a long range kicker who’d been kicking well for us all year and he’d kicked one from there against Uni earlier in the year so I guess I was hoping it might just come off for us but I won’t dwell on it too much, it’s over and done with.

“We’ve just got to look ahead to next season now. We’ve got a good strong playing group for next year with a lot of young boys coming through from the colts sides that have all made the finals so we’re in a good place. I just hope that our three coaches – Hadley [Jackson], Rod [Cutler] and Geoff [Ingram] – stick around because they’ve been really instrumental to our success this year and I can’t thank them enough.”

Sydney University head coach Garrick Cowley:

“The boys have worked really hard, especially over the last month or so. Those guys [Randwick] have taught us a lesson three times during the year so it was probably easier coming in as the underdog but it could have gone either way so to take it, we’re obviously very happy.

“They’ve got some great attackers in their team and they play a pretty good style of rugby, especially when they’ve got some momentum, so, as coaching staff, we were pretty happy today when we were able to put some points on the board early.

“They scored a try before and after half-time, which are important moments, and I think that showed the character of the team for us to stay composed, stay in our systems and manage to hang on in there til the end. It was looking tough when they went over in the corner but we stuck with it and got the try and I was just glad we scored close to the posts!

“Byron [Hodge] was kicking at about 15% on Thursday night, he was terrible. But he said afterwards ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be fine for Saturday! – and he was.

“It’s only my second year with second grade but I guess we’ve kind of become used to a heavy Uni representation on Grand Final day so it was different being the only team here. I really felt for our 3’s and 4’s last weekend with both losing on the buzzer but we still won the club championship and all our teams were in the semis so, while it’s disappointing, I don’t think it’s panic stations just yet!”

SYDNEY UNIVERSITY 35 (Chris Ingate 2, Matthew Philip, James Swan tries; Byron Hodge 3 cons, 3 pens) defeated RANDWICK 34 (Lewie Catt, Kodie Hawkins, Tristan Goodbody, Latu Latunipulu, Chris Taripo tries; Chris Taripo con, pen, Andrew Deegan 2 cons)