4^th GRADE St Ives defeated Briars 24-21
It only took 2.5 games but Briars 4^th Grade finally awoke in season 2010. We dominated the second half with strong forward runs piercing the defence on a regular basis and some solid back up from the backs resulting in three converted tries to none to finish the game.  Now that we have seen what we are truly capable of I expect we will see a more committed Briars 4^th Grade side take the field against Newport this weekend, and return to our winning ways of recent seasons. Special mention on the day must go to the Colts who stepped up and contributed admirably.
Points: Arran Coughlan 3, Alex Constanti 2 & Christian Lombardo 1. 
Coach: Damien Johnson 

3^rd GRADE
Briars defeated St Ives 10-5
The day started with missing players but nonetheless we started the match with a pretty solid side. Thanks to Tiga for starting at Prop when there was no-one else. St Ives started the game with a lot more ball possession and as a result opened the scoring. However, due to some great defence and commitment from Briars, those would be the only points St Ives would post all game. After a great team effort, we hit back with a push over try to Reuben. Guddo showed some individual brilliance by side stepping his way to the try line to make it 10-5.  Poor conversion attempts meant that we were far from having the game in the bag, but even though the team was reduced to 14 after Reuben was yellow carded for a professional foul in the last 10 min of the game, 3rd Grade toughed it out and got the win. Most pleasing was the defence on our line.   We still have a lot of improvement to make but we still came away with the win.  Special mention goes to Tom Patterson who filled in on the wing when it isn't his preferred position and to all the guys that played fourth grade and backed up.
Points went to Ginty 3, Guddo 2, and 1 each to Tim Rolls and Tom Hull. 
Coach: Reuben Sinai 

2^ND GRADE
St Ives def Briars 34-0
The score line didn't reflect the game. Briars soaked up a lot of pressure early on and great composure was shown by Salty and Mcphee when St Ives was peppering our line but the good work was undone by poor one on one defence. The forwards were dominating at scrum time and it was great to see that we never gave up. It came down to the fact that no pressure was put on their 5/8 (who played 1st grade in previous years) and he ultimately dictated the game. We would build phases and make headway towards their try line, only to lose the ball and have their 5/8 kick the ball back to our 20.  The backs didn't gel all that well on attack, but this was to be expected due to reshuffling as a result of all of the club’s halves being unavailable this week.

Despite the score, there was some good effort, especially in the forwards.  We need to work on one-on-one defence and line speed to put pressure on the other side.
Points went to James Mac 3, Ian Pond 2 and Nick Russell 1.  

1^st GRADE
Briars defeated St Ives 20-19
Briars 1st Grade wanted to stay undefeated for the 2010 season. Taking on St Ives at Hassell Park on the Anzac Long weekend was going to be a tough task as St Ives had a good win last week and I am sure they wanted to stay on a winning streak just as much as we did. It was another hot day for rugby and Briars realised they were in for a long day when St Ives posted first points with a converted try in the corner after an attacking raid that had been defended well until a misread in defence. Briars started to show the form that has seen them have 2 convincing wins so far, but the last pass was not sticking and eventually we wore St Ives down into giving a penalty away in range for James Ronsisvalle to step up and get Briars on the board.  At the 25 minute mark of the game it was like a switch flicked on and the Briars defence turned into offence with some dominating tackles from Ashley Walsh and Kerry Constanti. The rest of the team followed suit and Briars put on 3 quick tries to go out to a 20 to 7 lead. Still not being able to put 80 minutes of rugby together, Briars let St Ives back into the game. Without some awesome defence and turnover ball (especially from Man of the Match Jay Stephenson), Briars could have let the game slip away, but to their credit they stayed strong and won the game 20-19.  We head to Newport this week to play one of only three teams still undefeated so we will need to step up because it does not get any easier the following week, with a game against former 1st Division Club Kings at our home ground Rothwell Park for Ladies Day. Come on down and see the Briars Boys run riot, 1st Grade at 3.15pm. 
Coach: Mark Gudmunson