The first week of the inaugural Junior Gold Cup saw some entertaining games take place across 18 of the 24 Centres throughout Australia.
Closely-contested games seemed to be a common theme throughout Queensland, with three out of five games resulting in a less than ten-point winning margin and one out of the five games resulting in a draw.
The first game of the JGC was in fact a tightly contested draw with Gold Coast coming from behind to draw with Brisbane Yellow at Ballymore. The final score of 17 a piece was a true reflection of the tight struggle between the two sides as both were unwilling to give ground against each other.
Brisbane Purple under 17’s demonstrated a second half turnaround to down the Sunshine Coast 25-17, while their Brisbane Orange counterparts defeated North Coast NSW with a convincing 25-7 win.
Despite the hot and humid conditions, Toowoomba also staged a turnaround in the second half after trailing 10-8 to Brisbane Pink at halftime. An improvement in their set piece in the second half ended up being the deciding factor in their 20-10 victory.
Big margins were recorded throughout New South Wales, with all Sydney teams showing dominant performances.
Sydney North West playing at TG Milner Field took on the travelling Hunter Region team. Sydney North West put a solid stamp on the rest of the competition with a solid 36-12 victory.
Sydney South Harbour had a convincing 31-3 win over Northern Inland, while their North Harbour counterparts went to Wollongong to win 34-5 over Illawarra. Apex Oval in Dubbo saw the Central Coast down Western New South Wales 22-5.
After such a successful and exciting first week, the next five weeks are sure to hold a great amount of talent and future stars.
The Development Pathways, Junior Gold Cup Manager, Hugh Carpenter was happy with the start of the competition.
“The competition had a great start and it was great to see so many competitive matches right across the board.
The competition is six weeks long so there is plenty of opportunities for teams that lost in the first week to regather and move forward in the competition. It’s important for teams to use their attack wisely with this new bonus point system we’re using”.
To see the latest results and competition ladder across both age groups and results please click here.
