Chancellor’s Cup hat-trick
Volume 11, No. 55, November 02, 2006

Heavy hitters: Pte Callum Whiteside and Cpl Ben Jones, NQARU, defend against the Brolgas, a North Queensland representative side, during a trial game that followed their third consecutive win over James Cook University for the Chancellor’s Cup.

TOWNSVILLE’S soldiers have belted the north’s academics in this year’s annual Chancellor’s Cup grudge match.

Contested by Townsville’s two largest public institutions – the Army and the James Cook University (JCU), the cup competition sat highly on the Townsville sporting calendar.

The North Queensland Army Rugby Union squad (NQARU) again retained the Chancellor’s Cup this year, making it three years in a row.

The game, played before the Chancellor of JCU – retired CA Lt-Gen John Grey – ended in a 29-14 victory to NQARU, but not before a highly physical match was played out by two teams desperate for victory.

NQARU coach Lt Damien Cahill said JCU, and in particular their coach John Faithful, had been desperate to get their hands back on this trophy as they haven’t held it since 2003.

He said NQARU’s win was all the more remarkable given the operational tempo in 3 Bde.

“The boys only had two training sessions to come together for this match, and a lot of them haven’t played all year due to being away on deployment,” Lt Cahill said.

“This was the strongest team I’ve seen JCU put on the field in three years, and for the team to come out and put them away in such an emphatic manner is a credit to them as individuals and as a team.”

The JCU team contained six Qld Country players, two members of the “Young Guns” (The North Qld Cowboys reserve grade side) and two Qld under-20 representatives. This meant that the NQARU squad had to aim up defensively, particularly in loose, general play.

“The guys scrambled well in defence, which was highlighted by the fact that one of JCU’s tries was an opportunistic, individual effort, and the other was a length of the field effort that went through about twenty sets of hands,” Lt Cahill said.
“I was never particularly concerned with our set piece – Cpl Dean King ran and called the lineout very well, and Cfn Joe Rains and Spr Shaun Richardson led a very dominant scrum.”

Lt Mark Winder was judged man of the match for some incisive running from fullback, while the team was well led by Cpl Zane Mitchell.

The Army didn’t rest with that victory – shortly afterwards taking on the Brolgas, a North Queensland representative side.

While narrowly outclassed in that game, the coach’s main motivation was to showcase a variety of talent.

“It was a trial game, where a lot of unseen players had the opportunity to ‘strut their stuff’ in front of the national selectors,” he said.