In our last warm up game before the 21st anniversary match we had hit out against Warriors down at the fantastic Hodogaya ground. Encouragingly we arrived with a full squad in tow, even after Paddy Foley’s farewell bash last night, with 21 players!
Against a well trained Warriors line up we agreed on a half of league and half of union.
We started poorly in the game of league, tackling much too high, failing to get back our 10metres every ruck and giving away off-side penalties. Many of our players also struggled to adapt to the simple rugby league rules, especially the play the ball. One Crusader also getting very enthusiastic at ruck time, cleaning out the marker and even trying to stomp! Needless to say after a dressing down from the little general our play the ball and offside play improved and we ended up bagging 3 tries in the half to peg back the warriors to be down 34-21 at half time.
In the second half under union rules we looked much more comfortable and quickly scored 3 tries to briefly take the lead, our forwards doing a great job in securing and keeping possession, especially big Stu from Navy and Geo.
Towards the end some sloppy kicks from Evan and lazy tackles allowed the Warriors to score two late tries and grab the win, but the score was academic in what was a good quality, important hit out before the Itohchu match next week.
MVP- Evan with 3 tries and 6/6 with the boot and 10/10 for living up to the Aussie stereotype of being loud, boorish and swearing like a trouper!
In our last warm up game before the 21st anniversary match we had hit out against Warriors down at the fantastic Hodogaya ground. Encouragingly we arrived with a full squad in tow, even after Paddy Foley’s farewell bash last night, with 21 players!
Against a well trained Warriors line up we agreed on a half of league and half of union.
We started poorly in the game of league, tackling much too high, failing to get back our 10metres every ruck and giving away off-side penalties. Many of our players also struggled to adapt to the simple rugby league rules, especially the play the ball. One Crusader also getting very enthusiastic at ruck time, cleaning out the marker and even trying to stomp! Needless to say after a dressing down from the little general our play the ball and offside play improved and we ended up bagging 3 tries in the half to peg back the warriors to be down 34-21 at half time.
In the second half under union rules we looked much more comfortable and quickly scored 3 tries to briefly take the lead, our forwards doing a great job in securing and keeping possession, especially big Stu from Navy and Geo.
Towards the end some sloppy kicks from Evan and lazy tackles allowed the Warriors to score two late tries and grab the win, but the score was academic in what was a good quality, important hit out before the Itohchu match next week.
MVP- Evan with 3 tries and 6/6 with the boot and 10/10 for living up to the Aussie stereotype of being loud, boorish and swearing like a trouper!
