On the 19th of May, Taylor Park hosted the 2017 Matt Giteau Cup, where 40 schools from across the ACT came to participate in the competition. The day featured over 100 games of rugby to determine the winners of the year’s three and four ACT Cup winner and The Matt Giteau Cup Winner for 2017.
The day kicked off at 9:30 am with the first of the games to be played with many eager boys and girls to get stuck in the games, there were plenty of skills and determination on show form all participating.
Many of the kids were proving to be future rugby stars with one team in particular, the year 3/4 Macquarie side, winning majority of their games and constantly showing what teamwork was all about on and off the field.
At noon the teams broke for a lunch break and the Brumby officials calculated the points and matched up the teams that were going on the finals.
Just as the rains started to come in as predicted, the 3/4 and 5/6 teams took to the field to play the finals and semi finals.
The games were tough, plenty of strong tackles and passing skills were on show as teams began to push for Grand Final births.
There was a reconfiguration of the Campese Field split into two halves for the finals, which were the 3/4 final to be played by Marist 2 & St Edmund’s 1, and the Matt Giteau Cup final to be played by St Edmunds v Marist 1.
In the 3/4 final St Edmunds strong defence was on show early, Marist having plenty of opportunities denied in their attacking half. It was only in the final minutes of the first half that Eddies scored their first try to bring the score to 5-0.
Marist didn’t drop their heads and continued pushing for score, showing their attacking best in the second half to score an equalizing try.
The game finished 5-5, Marist being crowned the 3/4 ACT Cup Winners because they scored the final try of the game.
Marist College 1 were up next against St Edmunds College in the Matt Giteau Cup Final. St Edmund’s started strong and scored first, but the new look Marist side was determined to not go down without a fight in the second half.
St Edmunds proved to be too strong however, scoring another try out on the wing and coming away with a 10-0 victory to be crowned Matt Giteau Cup Champions.
The Primary School boys in the Cup finals had the honor of being presented their trophies by Brumbies players and former ACT Juniors Tom Cusack and Tom Staniforth.
