It was great to have all senior teams in action on the road this weekend, but before I get started I want to apologise for two things I said last weekend round up. One was that winning two from three was becoming a broken record (we only won one this weekend), and the other was that the women’s team winning was a certainty (the women lost). Sorry for those kiss-of-death statements. 

On Friday nights the Fizzy Reds is still going gang busters and we have a bit of content to share from that. Let’s look back at the weekend.

Juniors

I was away last weekend and (since the senior teams weren’t playing) we didn’t have a weekend roundup. As a result some of this content is from a week previous… sorry for the delay.

Fizzy Reds Under 10s – 19 May 2023

By Evan Dougall

The Fizzys under 10s went down fighting to comp leaders Crookwell pups. Ralph Klem was named player of the match for Goulburn with some strong carries and solid break-down work. Special mention for first gamer Yasmin Bryan for her defence.

Fizzy Reds selected in Canberra-Goulburn rep teams

Five Fizzy Reds players were selected for the Archdiocese of Goulburn Canberra-Goulburn rugby side that will play in the MacKillop trials on 25-26 June. The side will get to train with the Waratahs on June 24th.

The selected players were Angus Bradley, Archer Halligan and Oscar Moller (St Bede’s Braidwood), Angus Connor (St Joseph’s Goulburn) and Mason Allard (St Peter& Paul’s Goulburn).

Seniors

Click on hyperlinks for score sheets, photos and further details. 

Women’s 10s: A week can be a LONG time in rugby, as the previously undefeated Goulburn Women’s team found out this week with losses on Tuesday night and again on Saturday in their 25-12 loss to Uni-Norths. The Uni-Norths match was a top of the table clash with both teams going in with five wins to their credit. The closeness of the match was evident at half time with Goulburn leading by 12-10 but in the second half Goulburn didn’t bother the scoreboard at all. The Tuesday match was also a tough result to absorb, losing by 20-19 to the then last placed ADFA team. ADFA have now gone on to beat Jindabyne by 72-17 in their Round 7 clash. Stewards have been called to take a swab.

Jordan Brooker earned 3 best and fairest points and shared the Players Player honours with Melissa Smith. A full match report and photos from Pete Oliver will follow shortly. 

First grade: This was another top of the table clash, with Goulburn not only inflicting Tuggeranong’s first loss in this grade this year but an unambiguous one at that, topping the Vikings by 36 to 12. Goulburn held a 14-0 lead at the break, and added three more tries in the second half. An ugly flareup around 17 minutes in saw a Tuggeranong player red-carded and a Goulburn player shown the yellow card, but that wasn’t representative of the game  that was contested passionately but without much niggle.

Goulburn played a very attractive, expansive game built on the back of quick control at the breakdown, an incisive kicking game and positive attacking runs from strong territorial position. Tuggeranong playing a man down for three quarters of the matchmay not have helped their result, however Goulburn was 14-0 up when numbers were even and had two yellow cards of their own to reduce their numbers for significant sections. While the Vikings team was not as strong as the team that beat Goulburn in last year’s grand final, they are still very capable and now triggered to come back harder at Goulburn for inflicting their first loss. Jacob Kara, who scored a hat-trick for Goulburn, was seeing the match in overview mode, spotting defensive gaps and exploiting them with Jack White and Mikael Webber (who had a 100% conversion rate) scoring the other tries. Matt Spratley picked up 3 best and fairest points and Jacob Kara was named Players Player.

Second grade: I don’t know if you’ve seen the film “Sliding Doors,” but the idea is that if one significant thing had gone differently, a whole lot of other things would have flown from it. The traditionally slow starting Dirty Twos hit the ground running straight out of the gate and were challenging Tuggeranong’s line for the first 8 minutes of the match. Had they crossed the line, which they came close to doing frequently, a different series of events may have followed. As it was they still managed to limit the competition-leading Vikings to just two first half tries… one midway through that half and another just before the break. But the second half was a very different beast with Tuggeranong running in a further six tries seemingly at will for the 54-7 win.

Despite the end result, the first half truly was close and probably the best 35 minutes the side has put together this year, even if the second half was anything but. The second half lapses in energy and defence have a bit to do with training which few of the players are attending, and this must particularly frustrate those who are showing up. But even though the Dirty Twos are at the wrong end of the ladder, the good news is that the competition is very congested at the top end with no team winning better than 66% of their games. There is still a lot of matches left in the season and if the team takes the mental approach that none of what’s happened so far matters, and the season starts NOW, attends training and converts the could’ves to wins, the top four is very catchable. But it all starts on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Josh Mets picked up 3 best and fairest points and Jack White, who also picked up 2 best and fairest points in first grade, was named Players Player.

• Women’s 10s: Uni Norths 25 bt Goulburn 12
• Men’s 1st grade: Goulburn 35 bt Tuggeranong 12
• Men’s 2nd grade: Tuggeranong 55 bt Goulburn 5

Around the Grounds:

ACT 1st Division 1st grade:

• Goulburn 35 bt Tuggeranong 12
• Gungahlin 31 bt Royals 5
• Uni-Norths 36 bt Queanbeyan 12
• Wests BYE

ACT 1st Division 2nd grade:

• Tuggeranong 54 bt Goulburn 5
• Gungahlin 39 bt Royals 28 
• Uni-Norths 33 bt Queanbeyan 21
• Wests BYE

ACT Women’s 10s:

• Uni-Norths 25 bt Goulburn 12
• ADFA 72 bt Jindabyne 17
• Hall 12 bt Bungendore 10
• Yass 28 bt Royals 0 (forfeit)

Tables:

Check your stats

• 1st Grade stats
• 2nd grade stats
• Women’s stats
• Club stats

Next Round

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