The South put in a dominant performance, keeping their Northern counterparts scoreless in the second half, to win a second consecutive University Rugby League Origin Game.
The annual clash, being played for the 8th time, saw the balance of power shift firmly to the way of the South, demonstrating the truly national reach and talent available in the student game.
Loughborough’s Nathan Redmond, who collected the man of the match award, had a hand in several of the South’s key plays, with their opening try coming off a cheeky chip and chase to himself, before popping the pass inside to Noah Tyson who opened the South’s account. Redmond added the extras as a formality.
North hit back shortly afterwards as Deusjes Nzage completed a right to left move in the corner, with Jake Dickinson making light work of the touchline conversion to level the scores.
The South upped their pressure and Luciano Bejanidze found the ball in space to move the Blues ahead again, Redmond adding the easy extras and shortly afterwards Euan Parke made an 80 metre break for the South, jinking his way through the defence to touch down to chalk up a well deserved try, again Redmond was on target.
With half-time looking, Gabriel Parker burrowed his way through at the line, with Dickinson accurate with the boot, to keep the North in touch at the break 12-18.
But the South were unstoppable in the second half. Fin Hay barged his way through to find the floor early in the half, Remond converting, before putting in a huge shift in defence to keep the North at bay.
Remond’s cheeky drop goal with seven minutes remaining put the South at least three tries ahead, but the Blues were not done and as Redmond fed Freddie Ziegler who dived into the right corner and Toby Harrison’s outrageous show and go at the line, the latter converted by Redmond, rubbed salt in the wounds of the North team at the death.
“I’m really impressed with what I have seen today” noted Kevin Deighton, England Universities Head Coach when addressing both sides at the end of the game.
“The standard of this game continues to go up and the level of commitment from players from both sides increases year on year. I’d like to thank all of the coaching sides for their efforts in preparing the teams over the last couple of months and for giving us a few selection headaches over the next week or so.”
North: Charlie Gay, Deusjes Nzage, Leon Stewart, Sean Baker, Jake Dickinson, Elliot Shaw, Aaron Harlow-Stephenson, Tyler Hepple, Harry Lowery, Mackauley Stephenson, Henry Davies, Harry Gray. Interchanges: Ben McCall, Ralph Wood, Ben O’Donnell, Elliot Martin, Isaac Coleman, Gabriel Parker, Josh Kerr. Tries: Deusjes Nzage (16), Gabriel Parker (35) Goals: Jake Dickinson 2/2
South: Ben Price, Josh Knox, Euan Parke, Tom Oldroyd, Matteo Tapi, Tony Harrison, Nathan Redmond, Femi Sanya, Noah Tyson, Delaine Bedward-Gittens, Luciano Bejanidze, Tom Wilkins, Aaron Powell.
Interchanges: Fin Hay, Callum Foster, Cody Chamberlain, Ben Smith, Freddie Ziegler, Jack Clemmey, Alex Ringshall. Tries: Noah Tyson (7), Luciano Bejanidze (20), Euan Parke (25), Fin Hay (53), Freddie Ziegler (75), Toby Harrison (78)
Goals: Nathan Redmond 5/6 Drop Goal: Nathan Redmond (73)
Referee: Lewis O’Brien
Half Time: 12-18
