A sharp shower greeted the Norths and Easts players as they took to a dusty Banyo ground for the 2005 U17A Grand Final in front of a good crowd, including Broncos Coach Wayne Bennett. One felt that Easts had to start well to be any chance of repeating their second round shock voctory over the in-form Devils who had swept all before them in the lead-up to the big one. Unfortunately for the Tigers a mistake in the first set gifted Norths the ball in good field possession and they did not waste the opportunity with lock Jozey S dashing over out wide out from a good wide ball. The conversion attempt went wide but this was the only respite for Easts in the first 10 minutes as the Norths side played great footvall, opening up the Easts defence with ease, and adding further tries to Will C and a second to Jozey to take a 16-0 lead and a strangehold on the premiership. The next 20 mins of the first half was somewhat disappointing with both sides falling into error, perhaps because of the damp ball. Will C added a second try to take Norths out to a 20 point lead, but a try to Josh, the Easts #10 who was a standout for the Tigers, and the subsequent conversion brought the Tigers back within 14 at half-time, 20-6.
Once again the Tigers were on the attack early in the second half, but errors close to the Norths line proved costly, and it was the Devils who posted first points after 7 minutes in the 2nd stanza, with Jacob scoring after a great offload from Isaac S. When Jozey nothched his hat-trick 5 minutes later it looked as though the score could be anything, but Easts rallied, and on the back of a number of penalties , David Tyrrell touched down from a smart pass from their five eight. A Will C break set up the last try of the match, Jacob's second, for the final score of 36-10.
Score:
Norths 36 (Jozey S 3, WIll C 2, Jacob F 2 tries; Jacob 4/5; Josh 0/1; Luke 0/1 goals)
def Easts 10 (Josh, David T tries; Ryan 1/2 goals)
(HT: Norths 20-6)
Minute by minute:
2nd min: Jozey S try; Norths 4-0
6th min: Will C try/Jacob F conv; Norths 10-0
9th min: Jozey S try/Jacob F conv; Norths 16-0
22nd min: Will C try conv; Norths 20-0
27th min: Josh try/Ryan conv; Norths 20-6
FIRST HALF STATS: Pens: 2-2; Scrums: Easts 6-5; Completions: Norths 9/16 (56.3%); Easts 8/15 (53.3%); Line Breaks: Norths 5-1
37th min: Jacob F try/conv; Norths 26-6
43rd min: Jozey S try/Jacob F conv; Norths 32-6
47th min: David T try; Norths 32-10
56th min: Jacob F try; Norths 36-10
SECOND HALF STATS: Pens: Easts 6-1; Scrums: Norths 8-2 Completions: Norths 10/15 (66.7%); Easts 8/15 (53.3%); Line Bks: Norths 5-2
TOTAL STATS: Pens: Easts 8-3; Scrums: Norths 13-8 Completions: Norths 19/31 (61.2%); Easts 16/30 (53.3%); Line breaks: Norths 10-3
Brad T
11/9/2005
