Tuesday, February 05, 2013
18's Girls
Australia has held out a tough New Zealand 18's Girls team, taking the opening match of the series 5-4 today.
New Zealand proved that they were going to be tough to beat from the outset, scoring a touchdown in the opening set of the game to take an early 1-0 lead.
It looked as though New Zealand would further extend their in the seventh minute, but their touchdown was disallowed.
Mistakes from Australia early in the match saw New Zealand dominate the first half of the poening term, but Australia soon found their rhythm.
The Australians levelled the game up at 1-all in the 12th minute, when Chloe Crotty scored on the wing off an overlap.
The Australians took the lead for the first time in the game in the 17th minute, when a great acting half run from Madison Regan saw captain Laura Peattie score to take a 2-1 lead.
Australian vice-captain Yasmin Meakes scored on the far wing shortly before half-time to extend Australia’s lead to two and take a 3-1 lead into half-time.
New Zealand were quick to hit back after half-time, with Jess Mahar using her speed to score in the second minute of the game to bring them back to 3-2, before Crotty scored her second on the wing for Australia in the next set, with the visitors taking a 4-2 lead.
Breannan Singman extended Australia’s lead just after the midway mark of the half, to take a 5-3 lead.
New Zealand then scored two quick touchdowns, to get back to a one touchdown deficit with minutes remaining, but were unable to continue their comeback, with Australia claiming the game 5-4.
Stay tuned to the TFA YouTube channel for highlights from the match – www.youtube.com/touchfootballaus
18's Boys
The second match of the day was keenly fought from the opening whistle with the 2011 Champions New Zealand trying to keep hold of the only title won by the Kiwis in the last tournament.
Australia started in the best possible way with a touchdown out wide on their first set. Jason Norford benefitted from some smart lead-up play and made no mistake in crossing over.
It wasn't an immediate response form New Zealand but after a few minutes of finding their way, Ethan Hunt got the home team on the scoreboard in an emphatic fashion, diving over in the middle.
Touchdowns to each team then followed with neither being able to gain any ascendancy. Isaac Walker scored a nice touchdown in the middle for NZ to go 3-2 up.
The play of the half then belonged to Mackenzie Haugh who ran down an Australian intercept and dived for the saving touch with just 1 metre before the Touchdown would have been made by Theo Majid.
Jason Norford, Majid and James Western then piled on three touchdowns for Australia to turn the game on its head. Western and Majid's were worthy of a highlight real and in a flash New Zealand were on the back foot going into the halftime break.
Australia stretched its lead to 6-3 early in the second half but the Kiwis stayed in it with one of their own. Australia's Jackson Luke then took an intercept to give his team a 3-touchdown buffer again. Both teams then traded Touchdowns once more
Both teams then traded Touchdowns once moreIt was then New Zealand's turn to go on a run of Touchdowns with Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi and William Raea scoring to make it 7-8.
A final Touchdown to Australia was enough to seal the match 9-7 but New Zealand showed enough this afternoon to suggest that this series will be tightly fought.
20's Girls
The Australians made it onto the scoreboard early in the game, when Catherine Sargent scored in the third minute to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Both team’s defence held strong for the next 10 minutes, with the game going from end to end, before Rebecca Mounsey scored on the wing for Australia to take a 2-0 lead with six minutes remaining in the half.
A beautiful long ball from co-captain Rachel Beck in the 18th minute saw Tracy Hill score on the wing, before New Zealand scored their first touchdown of the match in the next set, then Australia scored their fourth of the match to take a 4-1 lead into half-time.
Australia extended their lead to three just after the break, when Melissa Peters scored of the tap-off move in the first set to take a 5-1 advantage.
They were back on the scoreboard shortly after when Toni Wells scored in the second minute of the half to take a 6-1 lead.
Maddie Studdon made it 7-1 at the midway mark of the first half, before Chloe Williamson scored New Zealand’s first touchdown of the half with just under five minutes remaining.
Peters hit back to claim her second touchdown of the game in the next set, to take a six touchdown lead and the win, 8-2.
20's Boys
The marquee event for the day was the Under 21 Men's match; both teams had plenty of experience to match their youthful exuberance and it was Australia who took the challenge to New Zealand with an opening onslaught of three Touchdowns.
Wesley Sefuiva, Scott Bundy and Simon Lang were all at the end of some good lead-up play and made no mistake in their execution. With the platform laid by Australia, New Zealand were forced to play catch-up and eventually got one back through Tyson Johnson.
New Zealand were soon back on attack and looking for a second score when Cohan Guerra anticipated the kiwi pass to the millimetre, intercepted and then with a freakish show of speed, streaked away to score.
With the score 4-1 at halftime, the kiwis had a mountain to climb and Henry Tuatea took the first couple of steps with a touchdown in the middle of the park to keep his team in it.
From thereon in though, it was all the green and gold. Oscar Sanft was first to score and not long after Wesley Sefuiva provided a nice inside ball to Matthew Goodrope to further extend the lead. Adam Pryde also got into the act and by full-time a dominant Austrlia had racked up 10 touchdowns to go out big winners and provide New Zealand with a lot of questions to answer leading into Game 2 tomorrow.
Results
Day One Results
18’s Girls
Australia 5 defeated New Zealand 4
18’s Boys
Australia 9 defeated New Zealand 7
20’s Girls
Australia 8 defeated New Zealand 2
20’s Boys
Australia 10 defeated New Zealand 2
- Links:
Day One Results
