Kirwan sees off big Park challenge
KIRWAN State High’s Under 15 team are through to the Cowboys Challenge grand final after defeating Ignatius Park College 26-4 in their showdown on Wednesday afternoon.
Kirwan led the match from the third minute to the final whistle, in part thanks to a standout first-half performance from Kirwan secondrower Wil Hope who dominated in attack and defence, scoring a try just before half time.
Ignatius Park put themselves under early pressure, giving away a penalty for a strip just two minutes in and gifting Kirwan a full set to attack the line.
Following a tough run and fast play-theball from Hope, hooker Cooper C Cox burrowed over from dummy half to help his team to an early 6-0 lead.
In their first set after scoring, Kirwan kicked the ball out on the full and Iggy Park lock Connor Sadler hit back from a metre out to score, 6-4.
With one try apiece, Ignatius Park appeared to have settled into the game defensively, matching Kirwan set-for-set for 10 minutes until backrower Richard Price ran a strong line to score without much trouble.
Kirwan scored one more try before the end of the half, regaining possession from an attacking kick and offloading to Hope who made a beeline for the corner to send the team into the sheds 16-4 ahead.
Kirwan scored again early in the second half, with centre CJ Tapaitau finishing off a tidy move to extend the lead to 16 points, before Ignatius Park stepped up their defence to hold their opposition out for a long period.
The deadlock was eventually broken by Kirwan’s Queensland Under-15s representative No.13 Diesel Taylor (pictured), who burst through the defence, showing off his strength by swatting away the fullback and the rest of the cover defence to dot down for his team’s fifth try.