By JO HARRISON
AFTER the first semi-final in the New England Rugby competition produced a nail-biting finish, expectation was high for the clash against minor premiers St Albert’s College and Robb College at Bellevue Oval on Saturday afternoon.
Unfortunately for the big crowd in attendance, Robb could not match the skill of their college rivals going down 20-3.
The nail was put into the Robb coffin in the first half with Albies scoring 17 of their points during this period. Robb who only managed three points for the whole game planned to come out firing but just ran out of puff towards the end of the first half.
“It was a tough game of footy and they really stepped it up,” Robb captain Andy Turbayne said.
“We had prepared pretty well throughout the week and we came out in the first half a million miles and hour but they just stepped it up and we couldn’t match them in the first half.”
St Alberts coach Tom Newsom said his side did all the damage in the back 20 minutes of the first half.
“It was a pretty tight clash during the first 10 minutes but then Charlie Locker scored two quick tries out wide, which is where we score most of our points,” Newsom said.
“The second half was quite difficult we had lost our first chose five eighth last week and our second chose five eighth went down with a head knock in the first 10 minutes so Peter Weis slotted in there really well, but you can only do so much in such a vital position with limited experience.”
Albies played a high risk game in the second half which did not work well for them with mistakes creeping into their game. Robb were unable to capitalise and looked never in with a chance.
“When you play high risk footy sometimes it doesn’t come off,” Newsom said.
“If we were less adventurous in the way we were playing we would have beaten them by more but our focus now is on next week’s game against the Blues.”
Albies play a very different game to the Blues and, according to Newsom, the winner will be the one who can stick to their style of game.
“If we can dominate possession and play the way we want to play and open things up we should be in with a good chance,” he said.
