Sports Report: 8 June 2022

Basketball
Congratulations to Stirling Musgrove and Kanyi Menakaya who have been selected in the ACT U16 Men’s Basketball team to play at Nationals in Perth in the July school holidays.

Women’s Rugby
Last week our Radford Year 9-10 Women’s rugby team competed in the 2022 Brumbies Gala Day – North Region. The team played against Goulburn High School, Trinity Catholic College Goulburn and Jindabyne Central School, progressing through to the grand final.

The team had been training for several weeks under the expertise of Lucas Thiessen (Sports Program Manager Radford Rugby), fine tuning their knowledge and skills of the game.

In the final, the team were unfortunately defeated by Trinity Catholic College Goulburn but have progressed to the ACT Schoolgirls Finals which will be played in Term 3 Week 4. Go Radford!!

Men’s Rugby - from our roving rugby reporter!
Round 5: Saturday 4 June 6 - Radford U18 wins play of the day, kicking duels against St. Edmund's

First XV against St Edmund's, 4 June
First XV against St Edmund's, 4 June

After five rounds, the Radford First XV has emerged as a legitimate near top-of-the-ladder contender.

St. Edmund’s College’s enormous reputation, matched only by the sheer size of the players themselves, has been enough to deter all-comers this season from conceding something other than a cricket score against Australia’s most famous Rugby. Not for our lads though - indeed, at no stage did Eddies even look like scoring 100 points.

Radford preparation this week was slightly interrupted by a series of injuries (including to Captain Baird), logistics issues, a flu of biblical proportions sweeping the Capital, climate change, escalating energy prices, and a chronic shortage of woollen socks. Yet still, a full Radford team turned up at Canberra Avenue to preserve and even enhance their own fine reputations.

While the half-time score of 56-nil suggests otherwise, experienced sideline observers remarked that the severity of the downhill slope and breeze had favoured the home team by about 57 points. No wonder St Edmund’s looked concerned when they trotted off for their fill of oranges at the break.

To the second stanza, and tactical genius was on display once again from Coach Thiessen when a field kicking onslaught was introduced, courtesy of natural born leader Patrick Walker, resulting in Radford spending valuable time in the opposition half for long periods. His outstanding positional play repelled many a raid, with solid hands and laser-like accuracy to return the football safely beyond the touchline.

Despite this - and a committed defensive effort by the forwards (special mention here to Alex Schofield who started on the wing, then without notice slotted into the engine room of the second- row like a comfortable pair of old slippers) - St Edmund’s did ride their luck to cross for a try or two, or 14.

Really though, none could rival the spirited counter-attack of the 63rd minute, when the mercurial Harry Ward, with quite superb vision, placed a deft left foot chip behind the defensive line which was gathered magnificently on the burst by stand-in skipper Campbell Kruger. Charging to the within 20m of glory, his spiral pass perfectly hit the open hands of invitational winger Jayden Kay who skilfully grounded the pill just inside the corner post. Mr Walker calmly converted the most difficult kick of the match to also secure the play-of-the-day. Despite winning key moments, it wasn’t quite enough.

In the end, St Edmunds edged out Radford 82-7. More armchair insights coming soon…

Radford Rugby match reports are provided by a member of the Radford community, not a member of staff nor associated with Radford Rugby, but someone who has a keen interest in promoting the sport for the College. If there are other members of our community eager to offer game reports from the various sport competitions Radford competes in, please get in touch by emailing CCSports@radford.act.edu.au

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