Scrumming down for Ireland
The Sydney Convicts launched their Bingham Cup bid on the weekend with games against Easts and Maccabi.
With trials done and teams picked, the Convicts have battled their way thus far and now it has all begun in earnest.
In some ways this is really the beginning of Bingham for us, Convicts club president Andrew Fuzz Purchas said.
With a sense of destiny the Convicts 1 launched out of the blocks, authoritatively marching the highly rated Easts boys all the way up the field.
The start was awesome. Our forwards were well on top, Convicts coach Bronnie said, very proud of her boys’ passionate play.
One of the Convicts suffered an injury that required urgent medical attention, but despite the seriousness of the injury his team mates rallied and both teams applauded as he exited the field by way of ambulance.
He is currently in hospital no doubt making eyes at the cute young nurses.
With best wishes passed on from the gentlemen of Easts, the shattered boys of the Convicts 1 team took what positives they could from the disaster and looked to Convicts 2.
Convicts 2 were out to avenge their loss to Maccabi in the trial match and came out strong. Convicts had most of the ball in the first half, and made several line breaks with big Aron carving them up in the centres, but the last passes weren’t sticking and the tries went begging.
Maccabi were under pressure on their own line and a charge down resulted in an opportunistic try for the visitors. 5-0.
Just before half time a midfield bomb saw the ball bounce loose and Maccabi were again there to scoop up the scraps for another try. 12-0.
Convicts came out on fire in the second half. Some good balls out to the backs and a grubber kick to the in-goal saw James win the sprint to the ball and Convicts had scored.
Soon after another attacking raid saw big Aron again burst through and this time they couldn’t stop him. Try under the posts. 12-12.
With both sides pushing for the win, the battle raged. Convicts sensed their chance and pushed hard for a scrum win against the feed, but the ball popped out sideways and the Maccabi breakaway scooped it up to sprint the 20 metres to score under the posts.
Final score was 19-12 Maccabi’s way. It was a tough first game played in great spirits.
