On a hot winters day the squad begun to prepare what could only be described as a titanic battle between two teams that 2 years ago had been a mighty encounter with Nudgee pipping it in the last play of the game to win by a point. In the morning the Whitgift boys went through their team runs and warmed up well, then we had a chance to relax after a great Nudgee lunch which reminded us of home, pasta, sauce meat, just how we like it.
At 3pm strapping done, Rob Whites blister superbly covered up and Rob Kings leg hair still bald from the ripping of his last leg taping, the players came back into the changing room ready for some inspirational talk from the coaching staff. The message was simple, Wilko; "this is the best we have got to play, this may the only chance you have of taking on a school as proud of this in their own back yard", Martino; Attack the 10/12 channel get over the gain line quickly and earn the right to play. Webby: "Defence, postive tackles, get to lineouts early have a clear picture of what you have to execute."
The game kicked off in glorious Queensland winter sun, with a sizeable crowd. The pressure was high, but the physicality of the Nudgee boys was not causing the Whitgift defence too many problems. Suddenly with several phases built up, Jordan Lewis spun the ball to the short side with Rob White blistering through several tackles to score, no page conversion, but Whitgift 5 Nudgee 0.
A good penalty from our 22, saw us ridiculously not kick to touch and Nudgee broke with accuracy and power and scored out wide with their kicker converting to go 7-5 Nudgee. Again some good passage of play from the Whitgift side saw us gain a penalty just outside the 22, this time a cool collected Page slotted it through the middle 8-7 Whitgift. The game ebbed and flowed and to be fair to Nudgee was it not for a handling error with the try line to beat they should have crossed Whitgifts line again. But this was proving a titanic battle with the team the first to make a mistake surely to be punished. With 5 minutes to go, Nudgee strung a series of attacks together and scored out wide, missed the conversion but 12-8 put them on the front foot. The line out was working well and the build up was good and in the last play of the game before the halftime whistle Max Angling made up for his earlier misdemeanour and burst through under the posts, with Pagey again converting to put us up 15-12 at half time. Game on!!!
The game started as it had finished at a frenetic pace, but the forwards of Nudgee were proving a handful and they were gaining yards on every rampage. Eventually a series of miss tackles in midfield resulting in them going under the posts and converting to go 19-15 up. Another good passage of play from a driven line out saw Whitgift gain a penalty, again Pagey slotting it from out on the right hand side, 19-18 to our hosts. Then, whether it was more by luck or judgement Rob King caught out wide defensively gambled took an interception and galloped(yes galloped) from the 22 to the posts, which was converted and sent the faithful Whitgift supporters into ecstasy. 25-19 Whitgift.
A series of missed lineouts and poor game management allowed the opposition to again strike back and convert to go 26-25 up. Whitgift threw the replacements on and went for broke, but again some poor decisions left the Nudgee backline with some mismatches in midfield to go in under the post and convert 33-25. Still Whitgift had time to respond and with a promising lineout position and some phases, but eventually the steam run out and a simple turnover led to the opposition putting the ball to touch--Game Over. We had battled hard, made some mistakes, but stuck at our task, it felt as if we had snatched defeat from the hands of victory. Work rate superb, commitment superb, execution needs to be improved, too many line breaks were made for us not to go over. A bitter sweet pill to swallow. The boys have impressed hugely and improvement has been enormous. But this can only be the start. They have to push on, they have to continue to improve, they have to become ruthless. 4 games lost by a score, the little things, the little things. What a head start, what an effort, we certainly got in their faces, we earnt the Aussies respect. But we have to look forward to get better still.
Cairns beckons, there a few tired bodies, a couple of minor knocks, but good spirits. Some refection that needs to be done by everyone. The sun is shining, the food is plentiful and sea is sparkling blue. No riots, no petrol increases, no phone hacking. Enjoy every moment, grasp every opportunity the season is nearly upon us. Come on Whitgift!!!!!
Nudgee 33 Whitgift 25
The BTECer's
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