BREAKING THE PBC FORTRESS
St Mary’s gets golden opportunity to down powerhouses
RUGBY LEAGUE: Confidence is high in the St Mary’s College camp following a tough 24-16 defeat of Ipswich SHS last week.
In a win that got their Langer Cup season off the mark, they will need to rise to another level as they come up against one of the competiton’s powerhouses in Palm Beach Currumbin.
These are the five keys to victory against PBC:
WORK THEIR MIDDLES
It was a key to getting the better of Ipswich last week, and will go a long way to upsetting Palm Beach today.
Playing two passes or more wide of the ruck will get some run into the big Palm Beach forwards.
“We’ll look to spread the ball,” coach Matt Jahnke said.
“We’ve got strength in the backline from the halves to the wings. It was a focus last week to try and work their middle.”
TARGET THEIR WEAKNESSES
Wavell scored two of their three tries targeting the right-side defence of PBC.
Pushing the ball wide, giving early ball to left-hand centre Angus Wright and involving Keanu Wright-Dunrobin in backline movements will cause their opponents headaches.
The backline of St Mary’s has been a huge strength over the course of the last two weeks, and it gets its chance to shine again.
MATCHING THEM EARLY
As is common with schools across the Langer Cup, Palm Beach has some big boys in the centre of the field.
Starting front rowers Xavier Va’a and Cooper TateRoche had their best game as a tandem last week, and they’ll need to bring that intensity again and win the forward battle.
“We’ll definitely be looking for Xavier and Cooper to lead the way,” Jahnke said.
BENCH IMPACT
St Mary’s impressed in the middle third of the contest against Ipswich, keeping their momentum rolling when the interchange bench
was called on.
With the likes of Marcus Waters and Jayden Thurston coming on around the 15-20 minute mark, maintaining that intensity is crucial.
“We’re looking for big strong efforts from our bench,” Jahnke said.
“We want to keep our momentum with our bench players coming on.”
HOLDING THE LINE
After conceding three tries from close to the line against Marsden, St Mary’s really aimed up on their goal line against Ipswich last week.
PBC scored two tries from dummy half through Oscar Bryant, meaning A and B defenders need to be on their toes.
“Last week we concentrated on defence in the middle, especially on our goal line,” Jahnke said.
“We didn’t want to concede any soft tries or barge-overs.” The Chronicle will be livestreaming St Mary’s vs Palm Beach Currumbin from 5pm today at thechronicle.com.au.