The Hills Sports High forward pack weighs in at a hefty 923 kilograms – that’s 30kg more than the 2010 NSW Waratahs Super 14 pack – and it was the big men who did the damage as they helped bettered Stannies 79-22.

Not only did the Bathurst side have to combat the size and strength of their opponents in the semi-final, but they were also shouldering the weight of expectation.

Last year Stannies’ first XV qualified for the final of the annual NSW Schoolboys competition and suffered a a narrow 18-13 loss to Saint Augustine’s College.

Had they prevailed it would have been the fifth Waratah Shield win for the Bathurst school.

While being unable to match the muscle of Hills Sports High, coming within one win of reaching another Waratah Shield decider was still a commendable effort.

Hills made the semi-finals last season where they fell victim to St Augustine’s, in May this year they represented Australia in the World Invitational SANIX Youth Tournament in Japan and the school has also been a force in rugby league’s Arrive Alive Cup for a number of years.

Following their solid 29-5 quarter-final win over Tamworth’s Farrar Agricultural last Friday, Stannies coach Geoff Melville still knew it was going to be tough to stop Hills.

“I’d seen some of the Hills boys play some representative games, so I knew it was going to be a uncompromising game,” Melville said.

“We were just outclassed by a very strong side, but we never stopped trying.”

The coach puts the difference between the two teams down to the pure size and strength of Hills’ monster pack.

“We scrummaged really well and our line-outs were very consistent, but we just fell off too many one-on-one tackles,” explained Melville.

“This allowed them to get an easy roll on and then get some space to spread the ball wide as we just couldn’t prevent their ball movement effectively.

“[However] we scored four well executed tries and constructed a number of other opportunities to score.”

Given the gutsy effort against Hills, the future looks undoubtedly bright for Stannies, who also came a highly respected fourth in the ISA division one competition this year. All but four of the first XV will return to campaign in 2011.

“We have a very good young side and should only continue to improve,” Melville said.

“Despite us losing players such as winger Tom Falvey, who has played above his weight and been very consistent all year, we will have players such as star flanker Harry Beach [Year 10] to lead to team next season in what I expect to be a very successful one.”