It’s here! It snuck up on many people, but the new TFSA League season started last Sunday with six excellent games of top level touch at the City Touch fields.
The day started at 9:30am on field 5 with the Eastern Stingrays strong defensive effort allowing them to overcome the Northern Vipers 5-2 in the first game of the Women’s competition.
Under new coach Stephen Daenke, the Vipers scored first and had control of the play for most of the first half, fundamental skill errors meaning the Stingrays did not have a line attack set for the first 10 minutes.
When the Stingrays did attack the Vipers defensive line they made the most of it, Riley Gray making the most of a repeat set to even up the scores. When an attempted long ball to an unmarked winger was expertly picked off for a full field intercept try, the Stingrays had the lead against the run of play. A repeat of their own on the score line allowed the Vipers to equalise and the game went into the half at 2-2.
Similar to the first half the Vipers dominated earlier, but desperate defence allowed the Stingrays to defend multiple repeat sets.
The Stingrays made the most of their opportunities running out the game stronger to score three second half tries to none.
In the other Women’s game, the Central Scorpions produced a strong team effort with seven individual try scorers allowing them to overcome the South West Wolves 7-4.
The Men’s division, the addition of two new recruits was not enough to reverse the South West Wolves fortunes of previous seasons, losing to the Central Scorpions 14-2. Jordan Wittervan and Scott Gear defected from the Scorpions during the off season, but the depth of the Scorpions team lead by a strong performance by Adam Whitehead lead to an easy victory.
Depth of numbers was also a problem for the Eastern Stingrays Men’s team in their 10-5 loss to the Northern Vipers. Looking down the barrel of having on the minimum of nine players, the Stingray’s added a last minute call up to their team, allowing the pivotal middle players an extra rotation against a strong Vipers line up. The addition did not have the desired impact, the Vipers able to attack a weak right side defence to always have the match safely in hand. Some strong line attack play was one bright spot for the Stingrays, who will boosted in the coming weeks by the return of star player Tim Glazebrook.
It was a better story for the Stingrays in the Mixed as they defeated the Vipers 9-3. Last season the Stingrays were hampered by a lack of support for key play makers Tim Phillips and Rick Wilkinson, and it seemed that it would be the same this year as the Vipers scored first and the Stingrays struggled in line attack. This all changed midway through the first half as excellent hole hitting from Tom Litchfield and Nimrod Njue lead to consecutive tries. The Stingrays did not look back, going onto a comprehensive victory.
The other mixed game was an absolute score fest with the Wolves beating the Scorpions 13-8. The Wolves are known for their attacking game style and this match was no different Darren Williams crossing the line four times in the win.
The season continues this Friday night at City Touch with matches starting from 6:30pm.
