Rugby League Update

NRL Schoolboys Cup

Hallam SC  28   defeated   VUSC  22

Playing our last NRL Schoolboys Cup game for the year, VUSC played their local rival Hallam Secondary College at AAMI Park as the curtain raiser to the Melbourne Storm game on Saturday 28 July. 

VUSC started the game off particularly well and put Hallam under immense pressure. This pressure resulted in VUSC scoring a try down their left edge, where a slick short side movement put Hyrum Seumali’i over in the corner and a 6-0 lead. However, too many unforced errors in their own half gifted Hallam good field position and put enormous pressure on our defence. This took a toll on the players and we we were unable to hold Hallam out as they managed to post 2 tries during the last 10 mins of the half.  Hallam lead 10-6 at half time.

This trend continued after half time as Hallam scored back to back tries to extend their lead to 16 points with 25 mins to go. To VUSC’s credit they kept on fighting and did not give up and managed to stem the tide and score two converted tries of their own.  This brought the game alive in the last 6 mins as the 28-22 score line had VUSC within reach of causing an upset. The game then flowed from end to end with VUSC throwing every ounce of energy at Hallam in a desperate attempt to narrow the margin.

Unfortunately, this was to no avail and the score remained the same until full time. Despite the loss, VUSC can be proud of the way they responded after half time to at least give themselves a chance to win the game and didn’t stop trying right to the end. Again many lessons were learnt about what is required to compete at this level and the importance of doing the little and hard things well for the duration of the game.

Overall, our 2nd year in the NRL Schoolboys Cup was a resounding success as we achieved a fantastic win against Erindale College and were highly competitive in the other two games, losing by the smallest of margins, 2 and 6 points respectively.

All boys are to be congratulated on the way they have conducted themselves on and off the field. Although, we did not make the finals we have learnt a tremendous amount about ourselves and what it takes to compete at the highest level in schoolboys football. Hopefully the defeats will inspire and motivate next year’s team to prepare well and give themselves every opportunity to get a win.

To all the boys who played some part in the team’s preparation over the past 6 months, you are to be commended for the way you have conducted yourselves and represented VUSC with pride and integrity. The sportsmanship shown in all games was outstanding and portrayed all the values we seek at VUSC.

We wish all the departing Year 12 students the best of luck in their future endeavours. It has been a privilege working with you all.

Regards

Coaching Staff

(Tony Adam, Wayne Adams, Lee Maieron)