Padua emerge as premiership favourites after win over Marist

Round 3 of Associated Independent Colleges (AIC) Rugby has seen Padua College emerge as early premiership favourites, as they claimed a 19-17 win over Marist College Ashgrove.

Tipped to be the game of the season, the match lived up to its hype with both teams exuding physical displays in front of a sizable crowd at Ashgrove.

Padua were reduced to 14 players in the opening exchanges, and Marist capitalised on their advantage with scrumhalf Jaz Day crossing for the first try of the match to give the home side a 7-nil lead.

Padua were quick to return fire, making the most of a long spell of possession with lock Sonny Ah San crossing over from close range through a pick-and-drive effort. The conversion was good, levelling the score at 7-all.

After losing another player to the sin-bin one minute before half-time, Padua found themselves trailing heading into the break with a penalty to Isaac De Flavis putting Marist ahead 10-7.

Padua did well to weather the Marist storm early on, with their try line defence withholding wave after wave of Ashgrove’s attack.

Defensive resilience eventually paid off for Padua, earning back-to-back penalties, which saw them march down the field and score from a tap and go through Ah San. The conversion was missed, leaving Padua ahead 12-10.

With their confidence running high, Padua then went the length of the field again to bag their second try in four minutes, scoring through fullback James Palmer. Palmer did well to step past three Marist defenders off the base of a ruck, before diving over next to the posts. Chris Bath nailed the conversion, giving Padua a 19-10 lead.

Marist earned a well deserved try just before the final whistle, Emosi Tuquri picking and driving after a superb Ben Bucknell break. De Flavis landed the conversion, but it was too late with Padua holding on for a memorable 17-19 away win at Ashgrove.

Padua Coach Ben Lowrie stated, “Ashgrove are a very good, well coached side and hard to play at home. It’s the first time we’ve beaten them in First XV on their home oval, and it was a really big effort from the boys. Its only our third game with four to go, so we’ve definitely got to finish things off.”


In other results around the competition, St Peters held on in a high scoring 38-34 win over St. Laurence’s, Iona secured a convincing 58-0 win over St. Edmund’s and St Patrick’s College defeated Villanova 55-5.