Post by padds on Mar 2, 2021 6:08:30 GMT
Premier League
Game of the Day was reigning joint Champions Darwin Dragons against competition hot favourites, Brisbane Raiders. Dragons were missing their legendary coach Dino Vakis, who is on sabbatical until further notice. The Raiders were coached by returning legend Chris Maunder, who had taken advantage of a loophole in the new coach rules and dumped all his big contract players and bought them back in Contract Bidding for a knockdown price.
Coached by ‘Rabbitoh' Bill Vakis, Dino’s half brother Darwin raced into a 12 point lead. Bill’s previous coaching job had been with Brisbane Roar Socceroos and Bill’s lack of rugby knowledge showed and it was almost one way traffic as Brisbane ran up 40 points to win 40-18. There were six different try scorers for the with Man of the Match Gareth Widdop kicking 8 goals from 9 attempts, as well as scoring one of the tries. An ignominious start from the Dragons, who lost David Fifita to a 4 week injury, while Brisbane lay down a marker for the season
The other joint Champions, Adelaide Attitude, travelled to the Gold Coast for the early kick-off expecting a hard game from the Matt Lyons coached Crusade, but Adelaide lacked attitude and fight and were nilled by a dominant Gold Coast.
The excellent Junior Paulo scored in the 15th minute and Nic Cotric added a second just before half-time, courtesy of the video ref. Crusade cruised the second half as an out of sorts Adelaide never looked like troubling the scorers, the final score being 22-0. Adelaide suffered a bad blow when star centre Stephen Crichton was carried off injured. Also injured was substitute Dylan Brown. Both players are expected to be out for 5 weeks. Coach Lyons will be happy with this start, but Attitude’s boss, Anthony MacDaddy was seething after the match and unavailable for comment.
Auckland Orcas, parading new signings Tom Trbojevic and Jesse Ramien entertained the team from Scotland, Glasgow Reapers. Reapers scored first with a penalty from Mitch Moses, but the Orcas took control of the game and only a bad penalty count kept the score down.
Ramien marked his debut with a second half try, but late tries from Dylan Napa and Kieran Foran in the last seven minutes made the game look closer than it was. If Moses had converted the second try, Glasgow would have stolen an undeserved point. Relief for coach Bill Townsend as Auckland try to put behind them the disappointment of missing out on last years play-offs.
Perennial losers Sydney Oilers travelled to Perth to take on the Panthers, who are caretaker coached this season by Dave Macdadday, brother of Anthony. Sydney had spent big in Contract Bidding to secure the services of top props Liam Watts and Alex Twal and were looking to get off to a flyer.
A well taken try in the first stanza by Sonny Bill Williams gave Oilers a half time lead, and when David Nofoaluma scored early in the second a Sydney win looked on the cards. This Sydney side always seem to find a way to lose, however, and with 18 minutes left Israel Folau gave Perth a lifeline. With 8 minutes left and the Oilers hanging on for dear life, up steps Man of the Match Kyle Feldt with a try and a match winning conversion. Heartbreak for Sydney coach Roger Bossert, but the best team won.
Final match paired last season’s injury ravaged ex Champions, Hull Kingston Redskins, against fellow Brits Merseyside Dockers. Redskins always struggle against Jim Green’s boys and this was no exception. Including new signings Jonny Lomax and Morgan Knowles, ex Hull player, the Dockers took control from the start. Lomax and Kotoni Staggs grabbing tries in the first half to give the Dockers command.
Coach Dave Paddock’s half-time team talk worked for a while as Hull scored through new signing Kevin Proctor to pull the deficit to 4. Dockers response was to move up a gear and a second try by Man of the Match Staggs, plus touchdowns from Addo-Carr, Josh Morris and Daniel Saifiti gave Merseyside an emphatic 36-8 win on Humberside. To make matters worse Redskins suffered bad injuries to Viliame Kikau, 6 weeks and Daryl Clark 4 weeks.
RSC
Early kick-off game saw Sunshine Coast Fury entertain Grand Final winners, Kensington Highrollers on the Gold Coast. An early Marc Sneyd gave the champs the lead, but Sunshine Coast hit back strongly with tries from Paul Momirowski and Kurt Dillon while Joey Lussick touched down for the Rollers as Sunshine Coast led 10–6 at the break. Two Sneyd penalties and a converted try by Emre Guler saw Kensington lead by 6 but a try by Greg Leleisiuoao, converted by Dec Patton levelled the game. Penalties were traded as a draw looked odds on, a but Reece Walsh try settled it 24-18 with minutes to go. This defeat means both GF winners started the season with a loss.
Grand Final losers, Trafford Metro took on South Lancs Saints at Craven Park on Humberside. A strong looking away side took the lead when Semi Valemei try opened the scoring. Penalties were swapped, the Jayden Brailey scored a converted try for Metro to lead 8-6 at the break. A Lee Gaskell penalty and a converted try by Brayden Trindall saw Trafford run out 16-6 winners.
Byron Brewers played Partick Pirates at in Auckland. A strong looking Pirates took the lead with a converted Jaiman Jolliffe try with the only score of the first half. Two quick-fire converted tries from Jamayne Isaako and Tom Lineham plus a penalty and 2 drop goals fro Isaako for a match points haul of 14 swung the game Brewers way. A late consolation try by Kallum Watkins saw the final score 16 – 12 to Byron.
At Barlow Park Alice Springs Dingoes entertained Surfers Paradise Punks. A strong first half saw Alice score tries through Dale Copley(2), Sebastien Ikahihifo and Josh Hoffman to a Kane Evans reply saw the Dingoes lead 22-6. The Punks came back in the second half through Remy Casty and Jack Bird tries to a Tom Lineham effort as Alice won 26-18 in an entertaining game.
In the last match Mandurah Maples took on Balmain Storm at the Campbelltown Stadium. .This match was quite close with 20 minutes to go until Balmain copied their senior side and imploded to lose 28-6. Maples scored tries through Jack Murchie, Enari Tuala, Ricky Leutele, Andrew Fifita and Jason Clark wit 4 goals from Tuimoala Lolohea with Balmain’s only score fro a converted Valentine Holme try.
Game of the Day was reigning joint Champions Darwin Dragons against competition hot favourites, Brisbane Raiders. Dragons were missing their legendary coach Dino Vakis, who is on sabbatical until further notice. The Raiders were coached by returning legend Chris Maunder, who had taken advantage of a loophole in the new coach rules and dumped all his big contract players and bought them back in Contract Bidding for a knockdown price.
Coached by ‘Rabbitoh' Bill Vakis, Dino’s half brother Darwin raced into a 12 point lead. Bill’s previous coaching job had been with Brisbane Roar Socceroos and Bill’s lack of rugby knowledge showed and it was almost one way traffic as Brisbane ran up 40 points to win 40-18. There were six different try scorers for the with Man of the Match Gareth Widdop kicking 8 goals from 9 attempts, as well as scoring one of the tries. An ignominious start from the Dragons, who lost David Fifita to a 4 week injury, while Brisbane lay down a marker for the season
The other joint Champions, Adelaide Attitude, travelled to the Gold Coast for the early kick-off expecting a hard game from the Matt Lyons coached Crusade, but Adelaide lacked attitude and fight and were nilled by a dominant Gold Coast.
The excellent Junior Paulo scored in the 15th minute and Nic Cotric added a second just before half-time, courtesy of the video ref. Crusade cruised the second half as an out of sorts Adelaide never looked like troubling the scorers, the final score being 22-0. Adelaide suffered a bad blow when star centre Stephen Crichton was carried off injured. Also injured was substitute Dylan Brown. Both players are expected to be out for 5 weeks. Coach Lyons will be happy with this start, but Attitude’s boss, Anthony MacDaddy was seething after the match and unavailable for comment.
Auckland Orcas, parading new signings Tom Trbojevic and Jesse Ramien entertained the team from Scotland, Glasgow Reapers. Reapers scored first with a penalty from Mitch Moses, but the Orcas took control of the game and only a bad penalty count kept the score down.
Ramien marked his debut with a second half try, but late tries from Dylan Napa and Kieran Foran in the last seven minutes made the game look closer than it was. If Moses had converted the second try, Glasgow would have stolen an undeserved point. Relief for coach Bill Townsend as Auckland try to put behind them the disappointment of missing out on last years play-offs.
Perennial losers Sydney Oilers travelled to Perth to take on the Panthers, who are caretaker coached this season by Dave Macdadday, brother of Anthony. Sydney had spent big in Contract Bidding to secure the services of top props Liam Watts and Alex Twal and were looking to get off to a flyer.
A well taken try in the first stanza by Sonny Bill Williams gave Oilers a half time lead, and when David Nofoaluma scored early in the second a Sydney win looked on the cards. This Sydney side always seem to find a way to lose, however, and with 18 minutes left Israel Folau gave Perth a lifeline. With 8 minutes left and the Oilers hanging on for dear life, up steps Man of the Match Kyle Feldt with a try and a match winning conversion. Heartbreak for Sydney coach Roger Bossert, but the best team won.
Final match paired last season’s injury ravaged ex Champions, Hull Kingston Redskins, against fellow Brits Merseyside Dockers. Redskins always struggle against Jim Green’s boys and this was no exception. Including new signings Jonny Lomax and Morgan Knowles, ex Hull player, the Dockers took control from the start. Lomax and Kotoni Staggs grabbing tries in the first half to give the Dockers command.
Coach Dave Paddock’s half-time team talk worked for a while as Hull scored through new signing Kevin Proctor to pull the deficit to 4. Dockers response was to move up a gear and a second try by Man of the Match Staggs, plus touchdowns from Addo-Carr, Josh Morris and Daniel Saifiti gave Merseyside an emphatic 36-8 win on Humberside. To make matters worse Redskins suffered bad injuries to Viliame Kikau, 6 weeks and Daryl Clark 4 weeks.
RSC
Early kick-off game saw Sunshine Coast Fury entertain Grand Final winners, Kensington Highrollers on the Gold Coast. An early Marc Sneyd gave the champs the lead, but Sunshine Coast hit back strongly with tries from Paul Momirowski and Kurt Dillon while Joey Lussick touched down for the Rollers as Sunshine Coast led 10–6 at the break. Two Sneyd penalties and a converted try by Emre Guler saw Kensington lead by 6 but a try by Greg Leleisiuoao, converted by Dec Patton levelled the game. Penalties were traded as a draw looked odds on, a but Reece Walsh try settled it 24-18 with minutes to go. This defeat means both GF winners started the season with a loss.
Grand Final losers, Trafford Metro took on South Lancs Saints at Craven Park on Humberside. A strong looking away side took the lead when Semi Valemei try opened the scoring. Penalties were swapped, the Jayden Brailey scored a converted try for Metro to lead 8-6 at the break. A Lee Gaskell penalty and a converted try by Brayden Trindall saw Trafford run out 16-6 winners.
Byron Brewers played Partick Pirates at in Auckland. A strong looking Pirates took the lead with a converted Jaiman Jolliffe try with the only score of the first half. Two quick-fire converted tries from Jamayne Isaako and Tom Lineham plus a penalty and 2 drop goals fro Isaako for a match points haul of 14 swung the game Brewers way. A late consolation try by Kallum Watkins saw the final score 16 – 12 to Byron.
At Barlow Park Alice Springs Dingoes entertained Surfers Paradise Punks. A strong first half saw Alice score tries through Dale Copley(2), Sebastien Ikahihifo and Josh Hoffman to a Kane Evans reply saw the Dingoes lead 22-6. The Punks came back in the second half through Remy Casty and Jack Bird tries to a Tom Lineham effort as Alice won 26-18 in an entertaining game.
In the last match Mandurah Maples took on Balmain Storm at the Campbelltown Stadium. .This match was quite close with 20 minutes to go until Balmain copied their senior side and imploded to lose 28-6. Maples scored tries through Jack Murchie, Enari Tuala, Ricky Leutele, Andrew Fifita and Jason Clark wit 4 goals from Tuimoala Lolohea with Balmain’s only score fro a converted Valentine Holme try.
