This competition was held to give boys under the 55kg mark a chance to showcase their skills and show everyone that you don’t have to be built like a tree to play the game.
The boys lost their first pool game to Maroubra 12-6, then defeated Taren Point 52-0 and North Sydney Bears Development 36-0. We went through as the best placed non-pool winner into sudden death semi-finals.
The boys were faced with Maroubra again, and this time it was no contest as the boys gave Maroubra a lesson in team football and won the semi-final 24-0 to set up a grand final appearance.
The boys played Winston Hills in the grand final who were expected to win quite comfortably, but the kids from the Rovers had other ideas and right from the start took it up to the opposition and scored a try within the first two minutes. The game then became an arm wrestle and some baffling decisions favouring the opposition kept them entrenched on our try-line and they scored to make it 4-4 at half-time.
The second half saw our team withstand wave after wave of attack on our try-line and our team finally cracked and the opposition scored to take an 8-4 lead with less than three minutes on the clock. Our boys dug deep and went all the way to the other team’s goal-line in three tackles and scored a great team try in the corner, leaving a very difficult conversion. But cometh the hour, cometh the man, and Solesi banged over the kick from the sideline to give the boys the lead with less than two minutes on the clock. Once again, the ref found a few penalties in that time and it meant we defended on our try-line for the entire last 90 seconds. The boys hung on and showed the defence that had kept teams scoreless in three of the previous games.
A very large and vocal Rovers crowd showed great sportsmanship in clapping off the runners-up as they left the field. The look on the faces of our opposition was further proof that they were expecting to win the championship. They didn’t count on the Rovers kids showing pride in defending their try-line, which was the difference. A rousing rendition of the Rovers theme song capped off the day before the team were handed their winners medals. Well done, boys!
