The Aquis Gold Coast Titans Cup & Challenge grand finals were held this week in wet and miserable conditions at Nerang. School teams and supporters braved the conditions in what was an entertaining night of rugby league.
The Titans Cup and Challenge, in its 10th year, is an open age schoolboys competition which allows schools with less rugby league experience to play in an environment where they can gain the necessary skills to develop into better rugby league players. The standard of competition in 2015 was at an exceptional level with the hard fought grand finals evidence of the growing talent on the Gold Coast.
In the Titans Challenge, it was the top of the table Aquinas College against competition new comers Beenleigh State High. With their previous encounter finishing in a 16-all draw, the two schools grand final meeting was bound to be a tight battle.
Beenleigh started well, landing first points of the match through a converted try to lead 6-0 but Aquinas struck back through persistent pressure to score out wide and bring the score to 6-4. A penalty goal to Aquinas just before half-time levelled the scores to 6-all going into the break.
Beenleigh started the second half with another converted try to break the deadlock to take a 12-6 lead. The game seemed to be getting away from Aquinas with mistakes ruining many of their attacking chances but they managed to get the ball to their winger who went in the corner to bring the score to 12-10. The difficult conversion in wet conditions was waived away and Beenleigh were able to defend their lead to win the match in a thrilling final few minutes.
For the Titans Cup grand final, it was Marymount College who were heavy favourites to take the title from the underdogs Palm Beach Currumbin State High.
With the rain easing for their match, it was still a greasy affair with both teams only managing single unconverted tries to go into half-time at 4-all.
After absorbing plenty of Palm Beach Currumbin’s attack, Marymount knuckled down and played smart wet weather football, kicking the ball deep into their opposition’s end of the field. The continued pressure paid dividends for Marymount scoring another three tries and two conversions to take a match winning lead of 20-4.
There were many individual displays of brilliance during the competition but the most consistent player from the Titans Challenge was Lachlan Douglas from Aquinas College while Lachlan Smith from Marymount took the honours for the Titans Cup.
The Titans would like to thank the NRL, Gold Coast Rugby League Referees Association, the Gold Coast Junior Rugby League clubs that hosted the matches and the sports trainers that took care of all the players at each match.
Many thanks also go to all the schools, teachers and players for being a part of the 2015 competition.
T0 watch some of the action from last night click PLAY.
Aquinas are in navy blue against Beenleigh in maroon while in the Titans Cup Marymount are in blue and Palm Beach Currumbin in red and white.
