Under 14s by player Alex Bingham – Noosa and Grammar faced off in the first round of the U14s Sunshine Coast Rugby Union competition. Wet grounds and fierce rivals were the perfect conditions for a great rugby match. Early in the game, Noosa piled on the pressure in Grammar’s half before Louis burst through the gap for the opening try of the match. Tries for Harrison and Fraser in close spans put Noosa out to a 24-0 lead at the break. Noosa kicked off in the second half and capitalised early with Hamish diving underneath the post. Tackles galore and slippery catches were displayed by both sides as the teams swapped possession nearly every minute. Noosa eventually held out Grammar to nil in a fashioning game from both sides. Domino’s Pizza Player of the Match went to Fraser, with honourable contributions from Jack and Hamish. Noosa return next week against University.
Under 13s – The U13s first game was a tough game against a well-drilled Saints team who largely dominated the run of the game and control of the ball, which was reflected in the scoreline as the Saints won with a considerable victory. In a game where the Phins didn’t see a lot of the ball, there was a strong display of defence, particularly around the ruck. This prevented the scoreline from being considerably higher than the final result. After an impressive try-saving tackle at the end of the first half by Nate, the Dolphins came out firing for the second half, showing what they can do working together. Cormac was awarded Domino’s Pizza Player of the match. Under the guidance of coach Ben and assistant Frankie, it will be an exciting season ahead.
Under 10s – The U10s started their season off with potentially the toughest game of the year – Flinders at Flinders. A very poor warm-up led to a very poor start 21-0 down after only 10 minutes. Then up pops some straight and hard running from Hugo followed by some darting runs from Domino’s Pizza Player of the Match Zachy D, Coach Dwyer’s inspirational spray and some great defence from Paddy and Isabelle got them rolling, followed by some great cleaning out from Harvey, Henry and Stella. Hunter played some creative footy to get the scores to 21-19. Unfortunately a try with three minutes to go put the game out of reach with the Phins scoring on the bell to go down by a couple. Great finish.
Under 9s – We enjoyed great conditions against Caloundra to kick off the season and welcomed some new faces as the boys adjusted to more players on the field, and longer halves. We started quickly with a try to new boy Quade straight from the kick off. The first half went very much our way. The boys took to the second half with Caloundra working hard and scoring a couple quick tries. The boys weathered the storm and then scored a few tries to close out the game. Great to get all the families back together for another season. Congratulations to Quade and Cisco our Domino’s Pizza Players of Match.
OVER THE HOLIDAYS
Under 12s – An excited U12s side represented the Noosa Dolphins at The Armidale School Rugby Carnival during the school holidays. Despite a less than ideal training schedule thanks to rain and wet fields, 19 boys showed up ready to play. Our first game was against our neighbours, Peregian Saints. Our U12s came off second best. In Match 2, the Dolphins took on a tight Sydney outfit, Cranbrook School. Cranbrook got over the line three times to the Dolphins’ one. In a tribute to the boys’ grit, they came back to Match 3 determined, and showed impressive teamwork and form to take on an equally imposing The Kings School side. This ended in a draw, with Match 4 finally producing a win for the Dolphins against Gunnedah.
On Sunday, our final match, lots of great passing, fantastic tackling, break-out runs and teamwork saw the boys take a convincing win against Sunshine Coast Grammar. Tyler came away with the Spirit Award, whilst Xavier was voted as the Players’ Player by the boys. Huge thanks to coaches Chris and Andrew with the support of club junior president, Adam.
