Vikings Thank the Hastings!
It is often said after a hard fought win or a narrow loss that rugby was the winner on the day, but this time the Vikings believe that Tyler-Rose Brown and the Hastings community were the real winners at this year’s Stuart Lawrence Memorial Shield. Although narrowly defeated 24-22 to Lismore City and forfeiting the shield for the first time in two years the Vikings were excited at the level of support the wider Hastings community gave to the game, Tyler-Rose and her family. This year the Settlers Inn Hastings valley Vikings donated much needed funds raised on the day to the Tyler-Rose Brown benefit to help Tyler- Rose and her family with the much needed funds to help support them during Tyler’s treatment and recovery in the USA and the Vikings along with blessing of Stuart Lawrence’s family were able to raise over $500 on the day. “It was such a great day! It was so great to see so many familiar faces come along and support the Vikings, but it was even more rewarding to see so many new faces come along not to just us the Vikings but to get behind and support Tyler and her family, I even had my son Scott empty his piggy bank and a client donate to help support Tyler” President Chris Trutwien added. So much so was the Vikings and their President Chris Trutwien impressed by the support that they received, that they have decided they will now transfer their first home game on the 12th of April against Coffs harbour to Lake Cathie in an effort to help continue building support for Rugby and the Vikings in the Hastings.
The Jigsaw Personal Pre-season Vikings led by Stuart’s brother Greg started strongly through clever play enabling them to quickly dominate field position for most of the first period. Not to be outdone Lismore showed their preseason has been fruitful through organised play often leading to valuable points on the board.
The second period saw a tussle developing between both teams looking to gain the upper advantage before the half time break. Some smart thinking and individual brilliance from the Vikings backline enabled them to secure a half time lead of 14-5.
The third period saw Lismore become more dominate in the ruck area capitalising on organised play to score next to the posts and bring them back to within two points of the Vikings. Lismore continued t dominate the third stanza and kept the Vikings at bay, but the Vikings again capitalised on field position and quick thinking from replacement player Adam McCormack strike a brilliant field goal to extend their lead to 17-12 at the end of the third period.
The fourth period saw both teams lift to a new level and with the game on the line both teams did not leave anything to chance. Lismore hit back quickly and scored out wide to take the score to 17-all after an unsuccessful conversion. The Vikings showed true grit and responded in kind with a clever kick from Mitch Robinson allowing them to score out wide to take the lead again 22-17. But this year was to be Lismore’s after their hard running fly half crashed over and after a successful conversion Lismore took the game 24-22 and the Stuart Lawrence memorial shield for the first time in three years.
Although defeated Club Coach Al Tonkin was impressed by the Vikings resilience and determination. “We showed we can grind things out if we need to we don’t need to try and score of every play” Tonkin said. Tonkin was also buoyed by the number of players who showed up for the game and after a low key preseason the Vikings are please to see things finally beginning to build for the Vikings first game on the 12th of April against Coffs Harbour. “There were some excellent individual performances, but most impressive were Mitch Robinson, Gil Hopley, Simon Dunn and Jeremy McKinnon who’s line running and balls skills were devastating throughout the game” Tonkin added. “It is now imperative that we come together as a team and play a more structured style of rugby if we are to capitalise on what we have learned in the pre-season” Tonkin went on to say. All Vikings players are reminded that it is less than two weeks until the Vikings first game of the season and are reminded training is now being held at Stuart Park Sporting Fields 2 and 3 directly behind the Port Macquarie Indoor Sports Stadium every Tuesday and Thursday from 6pm.
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