TOM Hooper’s NSW 2’s almost snared a comeback upset against their more fancied first-string side to a thrilling Australian Schoolboys Rugby Championship final.
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The Saint Stanislaus’ College player and his NSW 2 team earned the meeting with NSW 1 by making it through the pool stage unbeaten.
Despite their efforts in the decider NSW 2 came up short in a 29-19 result, but had rallied back from a 22-0 half-time deficit.
“We let them get away a bit too much but we got ourselves back into it and it became a pretty good game by the end of it,” Hooper said.
“They got away through the wings. They’ve got some talented backs and they got around us on the outside.
“We got back to our structure in the second half and caught up but it was too little too late.”
The breakthrough in the all-NSW affair finally came through Matt Dutallis.
His try in the left corner was followed up quickly by his second try of the day just moments later for a 12-0 lead.
NSW 1 winger Fred Tricks pounced for a try shortly after his side had kicked a penalty.
Both forward packs were fired up and making plenty of ground at the start of the second half, as was the case at the start of the match.
Julian Heaven was the player who delivered NSW 2 their first points of the day when he was able to go over from a driving maul.
We got back to our structure in the second half and caught up but it was too little too late.
- Tom Hooper
Angus Bell finished off a Matt Minogue run to get the score back to 22-12.
When Dutallis completed his hat-trick it took the wind out of the NSW 2 sails, although Hooper’s side brought the final margin back to 10 when Jack Winchester scored a try.
Hooper had a memorable moment earlier in the tournament at Saint Ignatius’ College when he scored a try against Western Australia in NSW 2’s 34-7 win.
After the previous day’s win over Combined States the NSW 2 boys had a meeting with QLD 1 for a place in the final.
NSW 2’s poor start saw them go into half-time down 19-8.
However, in one of the most entertaining halves of rugby across the competition, Hooper and the NSW 2 boys fought back from 19 points down at one stage to take an upset 34-31 victory.
“It took us right until the end there to score and that was a testament to that Queensland team’s defence, but we were very resilient and came back to win it on the bell,” Hooper said.
“It was an awesome experience and made some friendships there that will last.”
The final was the second time in three years that the two NSW teams had played off for the title.
