Sydney University Lions turned in a dominant performance to beat Cumberland Beavers 30-nil in their Round 6 NSW Tertiary Rugby League Cup match at Marrickville Oval on Saturday.
Jack Vrahnos scored three of the Lions’ five tries, which were all converted by Ruaan Du Preez, including two from the sideline.
The Lions dominated field position throughout, with solid defence from Miles Fowler, Michael Ambados, Adam Vrahnos and Kurt Lewis forcing the Beavers into errors and playing out of their red zone.
With the forwards laying a solid platform, the Lions backline of Tom McCarthy, Anthony Jury, Ben Ellis-McMahan, Joe Andrews and Du Preez were allowed to show their class and they were superb in penetrating the Beavers’ defence.
The try of the match came on the back off powerful runs by David Oxley and Adam Harber and the ever present Ngatai linking and pulling the strings for some second phase play to fracture the defence and set up a brilliant play by Adam Vrahnos, who saw space behind the defensive line, grubber-kicked, regathered and laid off a magical ball for his brother Jake to race away to score under the sticks.
Coach Brian Greige was happy with the performance especially with the goal line defence at one stage repelling a number of repeated sets and holding off 24 plays from Cumberland in the Lions 20m zone to keep them scoreless.
“It was a win of courage and determination,” the coach said. “We will continue to work on improving defence, ruck play and repeat attacking sets.”
An impressive performance by Kingi Ngatai earned him man-of-the-match honours.
Next week, Saturday, May 15, is the Annual City v Country clash at North Sydney Oval, with a 1pm kick-off. This is an opportunity for some of the best players from the NSW Tertiary Student League competition to battle it out for the City/Country Shield.
Congratulations to the six Lions who were selected to represent City: Myles Fowler, Scott Bunch, Adam Vrahnos, Jake Vrahnos, Dwayne Botma, and Ruaan Du Preez.
Congratulations also to Brian Greige who was appointed coach of the Country team and Andy Saliba for being appointed trainer for City.
Round 7, on May 21, will see First Division take on University of Western Sydney at Bankstown Campus Oval, with a 3pm start, while Second Division head down to Canberra to tackle the Grizzles at The Meadows, with kick-off 2pm.
Scoreboard
NSW Tertiary Cup competition – Round 6
Division 1: Sydney University 30 (Jake Vrahnos 3, Adam Vrahnos, Ben Ellis-McMahan tries; Ruann Du Preeze 5 goals) defeated Cumberland 0.
Division 2: Forfeit by Cumberland Beavers
