Bruising encounter at sports academy

The opening fixture of the 2004 season proved to be a bruising encounter at the Brisbane Water Secondary College Sports Academy.

The college almost caused a first-round upset against the highly fancied Hunter Sports High.

The scoreline of 10-all at half time was a fair indication of how close, in terms of ability, the two teams were.

With the wind behind them in the second half, Hunter edged ahead to claim the victory 18-10.

Captain Chris Hyde led the 20-man squad bravely through a physical first half from both the halfback and hooker positions.

Man-of-the-match Shane Lewis lead from the front in both attack and defence, and looked determined to step up to the next level within his game this year.

Luke Serevi and Aaron Bull also had strong games with Ryan Varley proving to be the workhorse of the forward pack.

Despite the game being dominated by the forward pack, the backs were well represented by Daniel Fitzgerald, arguably pound-for-pound the strongest on the field.

After Alex Brown contributed four points from two penalty kicks, Ben Verevakabau displayed tremendous vision to provide a beautiful cut out ball to winger John Crocker, who then used his strength and pace to score in the comer.

Newsletter, March 12