‘Blue wall’ stands firm in shield win
IGNATIUS Park College cocaptain Tai Laidlow believes his side’s impenetrable “blue wall” was the key to their stunning Confraternity Shield triumph in Bundaberg.
Braithen Knox scored a double as Iggy Park dominated yesterday’s final 34-0 against The Cathedral College, Rockhampton to clinch their first Confro title since 2016 and the school’s sixth overall.
Defence was the highlight as Iggy Park conceded just two tries across their six games to go through unbeaten at the prestigious secondary schoolboys rugby league competition.
Iggy Park were also sensational in attack during the finals as they won their semi against Padua College 40-4, but Laidlow felt that confidence had all stemmed from their tireless defence.
“It feels amazing. Just the way the boys all worked for each other over the whole week. I feel proud about leading them,” he said.
“We had a call called the ‘blue wall’ and we didn’t want anyone to get through our blue wall.
“We put in the hard work on our line and we really helped each other out.”
Iggy Park had all the early field position in the final as centre Ethan Hagarty was held up in goal while winger John Nawara also looked threatening after a break down the right edge.
A pinpoint 40/20 kick from half Brodie Gill suddenly had Cathedral on the attack, but Iggy Park’s defence was again up to the challenge as they held their rivals at bay.
Iggy Park lost half Maverick Pagararo to injury and the momentum shifted in Cathedral’s favour as prop Dancy Hancock burst through the line, but he was pulled up just centimetres short.
The Townsville school weathered the storm on their own line before prolific tryscorer Knox made a desperate run to score under the posts and give Iggy Park a 6-0 lead after 12 minutes. Hooker Jackson O’grady then ensured Iggy Park would go into the halftime break with a healthy lead as he made a strong charge from dummy half to make it 12-0.
Iggy Park came out firing after the break as they turned down two shots at penalty goal and they were rewarded as Nawara and Knox both crossed for quick tries to make it 24-0.
Cathedral struggled just to get out of their own end after a series of handling errors as Bingen Balanzategui and Kaelin Kerekere scored to put the exclamation point on Iggy Park’s success.
Iggy Park coach Steve Lansley described the victory as a special moment for both the school and the Townsville rugby league community.
“To go a whole week and only have two tries scored against us was an unbelievable achievement and it shows that as a team they were prepared to put in for each other,” Lansley said.