Scotch College

An excellent rugby season

WORDS: Mr DYLAN COLEMAN • TEACHER-IN-CHARGE, RUGBY Photography: Mr Andrew Murdoch

Scotch College had an excellent rugby season in 2008, and members of the 1st XV should be proud of the way in which they played their rugby, and the manner in which they carried themselves.

A pre-season training camp to Queensland paid dividends, with the 1st XV defeating arch-rivals St Kevin’s to win the pre-season round robin tournament for the first time in four years, with a try in sudden death overtime. St Kevin’s gained revenge with a narrow 9-7 victory in round one of the home and away season.

Scotch and St Kevin’s then swept all before them, both sides rattling up over 300 points each in the process and conceding less than 50, on their way to a tenth consecutive grand final meeting. Scotch in particular played some brilliant attacking rugby from all over the field, with their traditional strengths up front, some strong ball carriers in the forwards and exciting runners in the backs.

In the grand final, Scotch started the brighter but failed to turn their dominance into points on the scoreboard, with St Kevin’s defending the block channel valiantly in this period. They soon fought back, and scored from two well-taken goal kicks to lead by six points. The game see-sawed between the two sides for much of the rest of the half, but shortly before half-time St Kevin’s scored a well-worked try in the corner to lead 13-0 at the break.

St Kevin’s came out to finish the job, and scored a hotly disputed try in the opening five minutes of the second half. Scotch changed tactics at this point, and began to spread the ball wide to great success. Chris Macrow was controversially called ‘held up’ over the line, but shortly after Jack North bulldozed his way over the line from close range.

Then Chris Ling sliced through the line to score under the posts, and with Brody Molloy adding the extras, the score was 12-18 in St Kevin’s favour. Setting up a frantic finale with five minutes to go, Scotch attacked from everywhere, with a desperate St Kevin’s defence spread extremely thinly, barely holding.

A penalty awarded to St Kevin’s in the last minute looked to have sealed the game, but the shot fell short of the posts and resulted in a 90-metre surge from Scotch to the other end of the pitch. But with the try line open and the defence broken the support ran out; the last pass went to ground and the referee called time. St Kevin’s had won the final and levelled the ledger.

Congratulations to Rob Sartain, who was quite outstanding as captain, and his two vice-captains Chris Ling and Lachlan Fenton, who gave valuable support. Congratulations also to Pat Swan, Jack North and Angus Hamilton on representing Scotch with distinction at a higher level in the successful Victorian team. Pat was captain of the state side and Angus went on to gain selection in the Combined States side and play at the national championships. GS