It was a solid day on the tools for Jordan Lenac on Saturday as the Bull Sharks piled on the points across the grades against Sunnybank.
It is National Volunteer Week, and we thank the injured Lenac, our 2024 John Eales Rugby Excellence Scholarship recipient, who put his hand up to operate the scoreboard.
The Premier Men are hoping their 52-20 thrashing of Sunnybank can kick start a surge into the top for over the coming weeks.
The Premier Women weren’t about to be outdone, they were also 32 points in front when the siren sounded with the scores 51-19.
Colts 1 coach Rico Gear must not have received the memo.
His boys only managed to win by 31 points, the 50-19 victory may have robbed the Bull Sharks of a fun fact for future trivia nights, but nobody was complaining.
Premier Men’s head coach Mick Heenan said the win was a nice change following what has been a tough few weeks for the team.
“It’s nice for a change to have a comfortable win and to be able relax for the last ten minutes,” Heenan said.
“I thought it was a really controlled performance from us, not everything went perfectly, we were a bit loose with some of our breakdown work in the first half, but I thought we fixed that up and had a really controlled second half.”
Following a loss to Brothers last weekend, Heenan put his leaders on notice last week to provide the discipline required to turn the Bull Sharks’ season around.
“One of the things we spoke about at training was not trying to invent new plays, we’ve got plays that we’ve practiced, and I thought we executed them pretty well today,” he said.
Bull Sharks v Sunnybank at The Canal
Premier Men
Bull Sharks won 52-20
How it was won
We started poorly and it was 12-5 but then the game turned, we scored a try and then scored again off the kick off and then we scored just before half time, we had scored three tries in the space of about five minutes. And then when we scored directly after half time it put the game to bed.
The challenge
The forwards struggled at the start of the game, but they got better as the game went on. Sunnybank have big forwards and as they tired, we got better. They are not an easy team to play against.
What made you happy
Tyler Campbell played well. He had been under pressure from the week before and he responded exactly how we wanted him to.
Trademark Players
Deon Samuela was good and Luke Depiazzi made better decisions which was a key factor in the win.
The work to do
We were down to 13 men at the end which for the second week in a row, so that is disappointing. It was great that we were able to hold them out, but we have to become more disciplined.
The final word
We needed to win, and if we win next week we will be in fourth place and set up for the second half of the season.
With Mick Heenan
Colts 1
Bull Sharks won 50-19
Colts 1
How it was won
We were only up by one try at half time, we stuck to our plan to play deep territory. They weren’t great in terms of their kicking or ability to exit. And they made mistakes in the second half. They were knocking it on, they kicked poorly and that's all we needed.
What it means
It was a good win. They are a pretty good side, probably the best they have been in the years I have been in this comp. They have had three wins already and the games they have lost have been very close.
What made you happy
It was good that the boys stuck to the plan. For that game it was important that we play a strong kicking game. We probably kicked a little bit more than we would like on average, but it was the way to played against them.
Trademark Player
Keanu Rasch has been really strong. He scored a couple of tries, he hits in, has really good body positioning in contact. His work rate is getting better each week, just with his improved fitness because he's a pretty big body.
Bull Sharks Footy
The front row, led by Blaze Moana were solid. Then scrum and maul were pretty strong.
The work to do
We struggled a couple of times with some of the boys that came on settling into the game plan, which was a bit of a surprise because Colts 1 and Colts 2 do everything together, so they should be across the calls.
The final word
If a player is given an opportunity, they have got to know what they are doing. But also, if they don't know, there's opportunities to ask. You only need 10 seconds to have that micro chat which is preferable to saying nothing. So there’s a bit of learning to do there. But it is good to identify those things early in the season so we can address them.
With Rico Gear
Premier Women
Bull Sharks won 51-19
How it was won
It was one of those shallow wins. We didn’t play that well to be honest, and we were lucky to win. The Sunnybank side were right in that game.
The work to do
There were things we trained all week that they didn’t execute. Our catch pass, our ball carry, our positioning in offence. There were times we made breaks and the support players who should have been there weren’t there. We will spend another week trying to iron out these mistakes.
What made you happy
It was more relief than happiness. I think we just got some great individual tries that put points on the board.
Bull Sharks Footy
The forwards once again battled it out, Lucy Thorpe, Elisha Godsiff and Paris Mohr, week in and week out they get in there and grind it out.
Trademark Player
Grace Baker scored three tries on the weekend. We made the decision this year to move her into the outside backs because she just wasn’t able to bulk up enough. But we’ve had injuries and players unavailable for whatever reason and she is always the first one we have to move back into the forwards. She never complains she just gets in there and does her job. Grace always just gives 100 per cent, no matter where she plays.
With Lawrence Faifua