The Premier Women and Colts 1 played brilliantly to record important wins against powerful Easts sides at The Canal. But the Premier Men were left to rue one that got away after some poor discipline allowed the Tigers to steal a one-point win.
Premier Women
Bull Sharks won 22-10
Where it was won:
It was definitely won up front in the forwards, especially at scrum time. Easts boast an impressive forward pack, with the competition’s most dominant scrum so I asked my forward pack to take them on up front and dominate, and they did.
Madi Schuck and Shelley Fox again were huge up front for us.
The highlight:
Watching the girls play with confidence and freedom to express themselves, there were plenty of smiles on the pitch and some great tries scored.
What made you happy:
Scrum dominance, it's one thing to hold your own against Easts, it's another to be able to dominate them.
We were able to demolish their scrum, win a tighthead against the feed and score in the same play. You have got to be happy with that.
Bull Sharks Football:
Our defence stood up in this game. Easts are probably the most dangerous ball carrying team in the competition and have some real talent in the backline, so we did well to restrict them. Loose forwards Grace Baker and Jemma Bemrose lead the way up front.
The work to do:
I've been saying it for a few weeks now, our lineout remains our biggest problem area.
Trademark Player:
Mel Wilks continues to impress with strong ball carries in the centres, she always poses a threat with ball in hand and her solid kick got us out of trouble a few times in the weekend.
With Shannon Symon.
Colts 1
Bull Sharks won 26-24
Where it was won:
Lineout at 87 per cent was a big shift from the week before and something we have been working hard on. Up front we finished strongly and our reinforcements that came on had a positive impact to help win the game
The highlight:
The last 6-7 minutes we started to dominate Easts who were strong all game. We piled a lot of pressure on them, and they couldn’t exit well which resulted in a match winning try from Hunter Robinson via a cross kick from Cal Simpson. Sam Howarth at 9 with the winning conversion
What made you happy:
Effort and accuracy were the words for the week so we took a step there and can still be better with our individual skills.
Bull Sharks Football:
Great attitude to keep fighting to the finish and win the game at the last minute.
The work to do:
We have to keep building combinations, we had Kobe Waikato slot back into the 10 jersey after a few weeks playing Colts 2 and off the bench. We will also continue our emphasis on contact work and ruck and ball carry security.
Trademark Player:
Captain Charlie McCauley was outstanding all game leading the team and calling lineouts. He also carried the ball well and kept the referee in check.
With Rico Gear.
Premier Men
Bull Sharks lost 28-27
How it unfolded:
We started well and then let them into the game with some poor discipline, both with ball in hand and in defence, is the best way to describe it. We should have been comfortably in front and instead we were down by 10. We were better in the second half, and we got ourselves into a good position to be leading 27-23 with time up. But again, some poor discipline led to Easts being able to gain strong field position and we just weren’t good enough to hold them out.
The coach killer:
They scored six points while they were down to 13 men. Two give up two penalties while we had that advantage was really disappointing.
On reflection:
It was another hard lesson to learn for us. We are still in the hunt, the nature of the competition at the moment is that everyone is beating everyone so if we can put a few wins together we will be right in the mix.
The work to do:
The maul and maul defence has been a problem for us, and we will put a lot of work into that this week.
Bull Sharks Football:
Jack Winchester played 80 minutes in the front row, and we were 100 per cent on lineout which was a credit to his calling and throwing. It has been a focus area for a few weeks, and we have shown some real improvement there. He also topped our tackle count by a significant margin, so it was some game by him.
With Mick Heenan.