by Paul Cook –

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THE WARM-UP:
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The 3rd grade decider saw Minor Premiers Sydney University take on a Warringah side that had lost only lost five games all season to finish third. Despite losing both regular season games to the Students 27-13 and 21-14 respectively, they came in to the final fairly buoyant having knocked out Eastwood in the semi-final, a side that had finished 10pts above them in second place. But having gone out at the final four stage the previous year, Uni were keen to reclaim the title they last held in 2014, when ironically, they had defeated the Rats.

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THE BREAKDOWN:
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No doubt still on a high after the previous week’s achievements, Warringah started off like a house on fire. Having forced a clearing kick from the opening whistle, they put together 14 phases off the back of a host of damaging ball carries, before quick ruck ball from halfback Calum Reid put lock Finlay Hillicks over from a metre.

Winger Calum Blythe slotted with aplomb from out wide to cement the early advantage, but when Uni punched some hard yards up the middle from the restart and the Rats were pinged for not rolling away, Harrison Blake reduced the arrears with a penalty.

Both sides were keen to play at pace and stretch their opponents across the park, but it was the Students who struck next with their own well worked five-pointer. Shifting it wide off a counter attack, a batch of support runners had the Rats defence second guessing to allow Ben Cannon to come in off his wing at pace and blast past a couple of green jerseys to find the chalk for an 8-7 lead.

The see-saw nature of the contest continued, a terrific 40 metre run from Uni no.8 Ben Carolan should have seen an overlap try on the right if they’d gone through the hands. But an ill advised grubber rebounded off the Warringah line instead, and the Rats went 70 metres in the opposite direction before a knock-on from Harry Suters with the line in sight, brought a breathless passage of play to an end.

Aggressive defence from Warringah a couple of minutes later forced a Uni knock-on inside their own 22. And when a lightning line break from Liam Creeley off a scrum sucked in a number of defenders, flyhalf Luke Vescio was in the pocket to fire a superb cut-out pass for fullback Daniel Saggus to dive home.

Will Davies dives home for Uni’s match-winning try – Photo: AJF Photography

But back came Uni in what was developing into an absorbing encounter. The Rats were defending stoutly and competing well at the breakdown, but were guilty of missing a few first-up tackles that gave their opponents some easy yards at times. That was allowing busy Uni halfback Alexander Jackman to provide some wonderfully quick and incisive service to his runners, and after another period of patient execution, Ben Carolan rumbled over from a metre to restore his side’s advantage at 13-12 with a kick to come.

Despite the best attempts of Warringah’s travelling Hillbilly fan club to put him off with a fake siren, Harrison Blake added the extras to open up a three-point lead, but their beloved Rats were certainly not going to die wondering on their big day. The admirable intent to go toe-to-toe with Uni made for terrific viewing, but considering the concern they were causing the Students with ball in hand, the amount of pill they also chose to kick away to a pretty potent back three, may be something they rue in hindsight.

As half-time loomed, the efforts they had put in across the board in the opening stanza were starting to show and you wondered if that would come back to bite them in the second half. However, the 10 minute break served them well, the amount of tackles they had to put in as Uni held the ball for a full three minutes inside their 22 after the restart was impressive, and was rewarded when a knock-on earned them a respite and an exit route.

With the rain that had plagued the week leading up to grand final day suddenly returning with a vengeance, handling, carrying and kicking suddenly assumed a greater risk. But Rats winger Calum Blythe had no problems when he skirted 50 metres up the flank in the 42nd minute, only for Uni fullback Connor O’Shea to pull off a textbook tackle to avert the try and leave him in touch.

That was to prove a rare foray for the Rats outside their own half, as the Students applied a choke-hold on both possession and territory for the next quarter of an hour. Stalwart prop Aldy King was held up over the line on 48 minutes as Uni continued to knock on the door, their scrum beginning to provide a handy launch platform, and with that, the battle – and the chat – between the forward packs was amped up a notch.

The second half descended into a feisty affair – Photo: AJF Photography

The tackles started to sting that little bit extra, the breakdown became even more ferociously contested, and some good old-fashioned niggle entered the contest. But it was from open play, and another questionable kick, that the pivotal score of the game was conceived in the 63rd minute.

Alert openside Jackson McCalman spotted some lazy runners in the Rats flanks and returned the loose punt straight up the middle and back over halfway. When support arrived, Warringah had regrouped well to thwart the first surge down the left, but when the ball went through the hands to the opposite wing, Uni had an overlap that was perfectly exploited by Will Davies and Ben Cannon, for Davies to dive over in the corner in front of the cheering Varsity faithful.

Now more than a converted try behind at 20-12, the Rats went for broke in the final seven minutes, cutting loose and throwing the kitchen sink at their opponents in the hope of a late twist. But unfortunately for them, their passion and heart wasn’t matched by their execution in the red zone, and they were unable to pry open a Uni defence that knew the trophy was theirs if they just held firm.

Fraying tempers finally spilled over in the last minute, an altercation in backplay kickstarting four separate dust-ups that clouded a game which had been admirable in its quality up to that point considering the conditions. But referee James Quinn resisted the temptation to add any extra colour to the occasion, and with one eye on the clock, issued a warning to both captains instead.

From the resulting penalty, and with blood still boiling, Warringah ran hard and true in search of one last hurrah. But a knock-on eventually brought the game, and their season, to a close and Uni had Premiership number two in the bag.

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THE WASH-UP:
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Sydney University head coach Gary Whittaker:

“The boys have been striving hard all year to get to the podium and obviously, when you get to grand finals, it’s fifty-fifty. The Rats are a great club and we spoke during the week about how close both games were against them this year, so we knew it would be hard work.

“The second half was always going to be a bit tighter, our cleanout at the ruck wasn’t great and we turned over a lot of ball there when we had them stressed, and at times we didn’t take the right options with the ball in their quarter. But we came through and I couldn’t be happier for the guys. It’s a wonderful experience for this group and it’s testament to how they’ve trained all year, they’ve worked damn hard every week.

“Club rugby is the grassroots of the game in Australia. We’ve got to have a strong base in order to do well at the top and the 3rd grade comp has been fantastic all year, all the teams have played an exciting brand of football, which is great. We’ve got two good young coaches in Tom Heslop and Jack Leary, and I just sat back from afar and helped to guide them along. But it’s just been great to be involved.”

Warringah captain Sam Reid:

“We like to think that every time we can get into the opposition red zone we can come away with points, and we were pretty confident that we can defend our line as well, but we couldn’t keep them out today. Coming out after half-time I thought we’d win, I thought we had it in the bag, but a few things didn’t go our way and we couldn’t get there in the end. They had a good scrum and they managed to pin us inside our own 22 for 15-20 minutes in the second half and it’s hard to come back from that.

“The Rats always pride themselves on giving a hundred percent in every game. It doesn’t matter in what grade, who you are playing, or what number is on your back, you just dig in and give a hundred percent and make sure you have a good time afterwards, that’s what playing for this club is all about. We finished by having a real good crack today but it just wasn’t enough.

“We didn’t do anything different coming into the grand final. We’ve got certain boys that can’t train on Thursdays so we just had a 45 minute run-out and got some pizzas – that’s how we roll! We’re all good mates and we’re not mates cos we play footy together, we’re mates that go and play footy together. It’s always a fun season and we always enjoy ourselves afterwards, and tonight will be no different.”

Sydney University captain Oliver Gresham:

“In the two regular season games against them we only won by 10pts or less I think, and in a grand final, that means nothing. We knew that they don’t get many grand final appearances, so they were going to be up for it, and we didn’t want to take one for granted either. But when they came out firing in the first 10 minutes, we knew we just had to hold them.

“We probably played a bit unstructured in the first half. We usually like to keep it a bit tighter, especially in these types of conditions, but we knew our fitness would tell in the second half and that’s what we rely on. We knew we’d done the work over the year, but I’m glad the boys could bring it all together and get over the line.

“It was feisty out there but that’s how it is with Warringah – they’re always physical, have big strong ball-runners and they’re always up for the challenge. We’ve developed a pretty good rivalry with them in 3^rd grade, and that’s the second time we’ve played them in a grand final in three years and to beat them again, I couldn’t ask for anything more from the boys. We’ve had a really strong season and been building towards today, and it’d paid off.”

SYDNEY UNIVERSITY 20 (Ben Cannon, Ben Carolan, Will Davies tries; Harrison Blake con, pen) defeated WARRINGAH 12 (Finlay Hillicks, Daniel Saggus tries; Calum Blythe con) HT 15-12

Sydney University: 1. Alasdair King; 2. Jack Jones; 3. Sione Talanoa; 4. Oliver Gresham (capt); 5. Rhys Domkins; 6. Byron Wicken; 7. Jackson McCalman; 8. Ben Carolan; 9. Alex Jackman; 10. Edward L’Estrange; 11. Harrison Blake; 12. Dylan Vieira; 13. William Davies; 14. Ben Cannon; 15. Connor O’Shea
Reserves: TBC. Coaches: Gary Whittaker, Tom Heslop & Jack Leary

Warringah: 1. Jack Slack-Smith; 2. Matt Wedlake; 3. Jason Lautolo; 4. Finlay Hillicks; 5. Alex Fowles; 6. Michael Ritchie; 7. Jordan Fowles; 8. Sam Reid (capt); 9. Calum Reid; 10. Luke Vescio; 11. Brayden Witham; 12. Harry Suters; 13. Liam Creeley; 14. Calum Blythe; 15. Daniel Saggus
Reserves; Pete Barret, Ryan Trbojevich, Vincent Wright, Jackson Stariha, Harrison Selby, Luke Preston, Jack Wheatley, Ben Marr. Coaches: Manuel Posedas & Scott Reid