By
LS Mark Emerton
In its 14th year of attendance, HMAS Albatross has secured the
winner’s shield at the annual Grenfell Sevens Rugby Union
Competition.
After good showings in previous years ’Tross remained undefeated,
this time downing the home side 38-17 in the cup final.
Albatross took a squad of 16 players and after a couple of teams
withdrew, decided to enter a second team with the help of a couple
of ring-ins, including a guest appearance by the ‘Old Bull’
ex-CPOWTR Brett Quinn.
The ‘B’ team came up against some stiff opposition and
displayed some exciting passages of play and fine individual skills,
but was unable to make the finals.
Saving the best for last, the ‘B’ team came up against
the eventual runners-up Grenfell No.1 and certainly made Grenfell
work for its win with Ryan Pidduck showing his talent with jarring
front-on defence.
In the other games, Albatross ‘B’ went down to St. Kilda
Warriors and Orange Emus.
The ‘A’ team encountered Grenfell No.2 in its first
game with a 48-0 victory with Tom ‘Knoxville’ Leworthy
making ground up the middle with his angled running.
In the second game ’Tross lined up against the ‘Expats’,
who with size and speed shaped up as the favourite.
But the bigger ‘Expats’ couldn’t match the speed
and enthusiasm of the blue and whites and the majority of their
attacking raids were cleaned up by the scrambling defence of Scotty
Hay and Brad Hanley.
Despite notching up a couple of tries, the Expats succumbed 26-12.
Riding high after a well earned win Albatross went into the next
game full of confidence and could do no wrong, defeating Cudal
48-0.
Andy Thorpe’s directions and scything runs almost always
ended with a pass to one of the Canadian connection of Dave and
Mark Sproule.
The scene was set for the final with the home side, Grenfell No.1,
fielding some sizeable players also with speed and skill.
It wasn’t long into the game when Grenfell drew first blood,
scoring and converting, 7-0.
After getting back on track pretty much straight away, Albatross
ran in two tries thanks again to the ‘Canucks’ Dave
and Mark who consistently outpaced and out muscled their opposites
all day.
Grenfell then hit back with another well worked try, but ’Tross
went to the break 14-12 up, but with a lot of work to do in the
next 10 minutes.
Shortly after the break, Albatross went in again, pushing the
score out to 19-12, but the home side wasn’t done and started
to make a lot of ground up the centre with their big men.
One of these runs secured them another five-pointer, closing the
gap to 19-17.
But this was to be the last gasp for Grenfell as the ’Tross
boys clicked into gear with Brad Hanley, PJ Cook and Shaun Megahey
making inroads with every touch of the ball.
The speed men started to link with well-timed passes and support
play, creating havoc with the Grenfell defence that tried desperately
to plug the holes.
Two more tries took the score to 33-17 and in the last play of
the day, Jason Cook and Grant Lelliott traded passes down the
left wing until ‘Lells’ dragged in the last pass and
as he had done all day, shrugged off several defenders on his
way to the corner, scoring the last try right in front of the
home crowd.
HMAS Albatross also took first place in the 4x100m relay earlier
in the day winning $100 prize money.
At the presentation ceremony, captain of the side Andy Thorpe
gratefully accepted the winner’s cheque and as a gesture
of thanks to Grenfell Rugby Club donated $100 towards the Grenfell
Juniors Rugby Association which was received with great appreciation.
Albatross Rugby Club would like to thank the Albatross PT staff
for their assistance in making the trip possible and contributing
towards the success of Albatross sporting teams.
