At last, a dry round on dry grounds and the Noosa Dolphins Juniors gave round eight all they had around the sun-shining Coast.
U12s by player Alex Bingham
The U12 Dolphins faced off against the Eumundi Dragons for the second time this season in a friendly match. It was an all-out fierce battle between the two teams, but Noosa took out a classic victory, 51-29.
The first half began with the Dragons striking down the left wing, scoring a great try. The boys were not going to give up too early in the match, so they hit back after pressuring the Dragons with some great tackles from Ash Eller and Ollie Hammond, and great play from all. The Dolphins led 20-5 at half-time.
In the second half, the U12s continued to snatch lots of penalties off Eumundi, with efforts from Max Taylor and Siem Van Velzen as they kept adding to the scoreboard pressure on the Dragons.
After lots of consistent tries the Dolphins led 51-5.
The game was totally in the Dolphins’ hands until they let the infringements pile on top of each other and the Dragons placed four tries on the U12s.
When the whistle blew at the end of the game, it finished 51-29. Everyone played very well and had done the perfect job executing a great win. The lads will face the Nambour Toads next week.
U11s
What a difference one week can make.
After a slow start to the season, and with six boys down with injury and illness, we knew we were up against it and against a big Caloundra side.
The boys, to their credit, came out firing and were rewarded with an early try down the blind side to Manus. With excellent ball retention and go forward (George, Mac and Noa), the boys (Luke and Lenni), put on two more tries to lead Caloundra 3-1 at halftime.
Aware that Caloundra would throw the kitchen sink at us in the second half, the boys kept attacking. The boys posted another three tries to finish the game 6-1 tries.
All players were much improved. Special thanks to parents who showed strong vocals on the sidelines.
U10s – Reds
The U10s Reds team faced off against a revved-up Matthew Flinders outfit in Nambour during round eight.
The boys managed to hold off the opposition, with the flankers and wings maintaining the line well and resulting in some great runs from Max, Zac and Caesar.
After some rousing half-time motivation from coach Chris, the boys lifted to show real spirit and teamwork in the second half. There was a flurry of tries, with Raff, Duke and Max among others managing to get over the line.
Tommy’s conversion game was on point yet again this week.
There were two Domino’s Players of the Match this week in Raff and James. Special mention to Ollie who displayed great sportsmanship. Well done boys.
U10s – Fins by coach and Ppoet, Dylan Tasker:
This week the Fins had the Swans in their sight,
Two Sunshine Coast glamour clubs, the match was expected to be tight.
Maroochydore renowned for being uncompromising and tough,
The boys were ready and relished the tumble and rough.
Leading the team into battle for today’s crunch game,
Captain Bailey Calcraft had a blinder, remember the name.
Maroochydore was ambushed from the opening kick,
As the Fins surged forward and made their tackles stick.
Sustained pressure on the Swans try line finally told,
As Perry crossed in the corner with a dummy well sold.
The team was decimated through injury and illness,
Boys were playing out of position with poise and assuredness.
Tyler, Seb and Harry are all barnstorming backs,
Whose work rates lifted to take up the slack.
Marcus and Albie, our two crafty halfbacks,
Sniped from the ruck and gave plenty in attack.
Louie playing out of position locked the scrum,
He took to the role with vigour and aplomb.
Lincoln and Archie were powerful around the ground,
In tandem with Max and Ollie the front rowers went pound for pound.
Player of the match went to Lennox for his tackle busting run,
Indicative of the team’s effort for the game well won.
A Herculean effort from the Fins today.
Despite the adversity they had the final say.
U9s
On a brisk sunny morning the Under 9 Noosa Dolphins ran out against a much-fancied opposition, the Grammar Whites.
The game started at a furious pace with the Dolphins having trouble exiting their half, with the Whites going in for an early try. From the kick-off, Ben made serious inroads through the opposition defence.
A series of linking plays saw beautiful hands from Sol, Leo and Monty passing it on to Mason to break away for the equaliser, scoring the first of five tries to a rampaging Mason.
The Dolphins had gained the upper hand by now, and we saw strong work from Maxwell in tight. Zac did some soaring work in the lineout. Hudson and Monty were forever doing the hard yards both with the ball and in defence.
Our boys played all over for the remainder of the half with further tries to Mason, Ben and Tom.
Grammar ran in four quick ties after half time before Mason scored another fine try.
Hugo stood up and was counted with some incredibly strong defence as the Dolphins clawed their way back into the match.
The remainder of the match was an arm wrestle with both sides trading tries, with the final play of the match being a try-saver from Tom to see a final score of nine tries all, but no one was counting.
It was an exhilarating game of rugby from both teams which kept the capacity crowd on their feet for the full 80 minutes. Congratulations to Harvey and Monty being shared and well-deserved Domino’s players of the match.
U7s
First up were the U7s Fins kicking off early on a brisk Saturday morning at Matthew Flinders College.
It didn’t take long for the Fins to turn up the heat by finding plenty of holes in Caloundra Gold’s defence to score a tonne of runaway tries led by Fitzy, Jake, Cisco and Atlas.
Elora had some fantastic kick-offs along with both Eddie and Jaxon showing some great skills in defence, which made it very difficult for Caloundra to break through and score.
The U7s Reds had a magnificent morning at Flinders College.
Once again, the Reds proved too strong for the brave Maroochydore Swans, who were short on players and helped by the Dolphins’ Arlo H in the first half and Toby in the second.
Archer equalled his record with a four-try haul against the Swans.
Josh and Lennon showed their silky skills out in the open field.
Mr Versatile Toby was ever-present (even when playing for the opposition) and Jayden’s big runs in the middle made a huge difference for the Reds on the day.
Arlo H was on form on the fringes and James earned Domino’s player of the day for some magic moments both on attack and defence.
