SA's best take on Australia at the National Touch League

[mr_niceguy_1979]

A number of SA's elite touch players have been selected to play for the Crusaders (a joint VIC/SA/TAS side) at the National Touch League (NTL) starting tomorrow 13th March to Saturday 15th March in Coffs Harbour.

I would like to acknowledge NPL and extend a huge thank you on behalf of the players regarding the generous contributions that NPL provided which enabled us to run a hugely successful fundraiser on Saturday 16th February 2008. We had around 100 people attend and we raised over $2000 which will be shared amongst the players.

I would also like to personally thank Brock and Garth for all of their help in the lead-up to the event and to Dakota and Lincoln for assisting on the night and ensuring the night ran smoothly. Without their support, we wouldn’t have been able to run an event like this.

If you are interested in following the success of the Crusaders team during NTL, you can check results through the following website
http://www.sportingpulse.com/assoc_page ... 907&pID=14

GOOD LUCK CRUSADERS!!

[mr_niceguy_1979]

Men's Open
http://www.sportingpulse.com/team_info. ... 983&a=SFIX

Women's Open
http://www.sportingpulse.com/team_info. ... 990&a=SFIX

Mixed Open
http://www.sportingpulse.com/team_info. ... 969&a=SFIX

[mr_niceguy_1979]

Results direct from the National Touch League. Crusaders did it tough in the first game in all divisions, which is slightly expected due to the nature of a combined state team and only 2 days of training together compared to months of training with the NSW and QLD teams! Stay tuned for Round 2 results

Men's Open
WA/NT Barbarians def. Crusaders 12-1 (Travis Crawford 1)

Women's Open
Southern NSW Suns def. Crusaders 7-1 (Amelia Kent 1)

Mixed Open
Brisbane City Cobras def. Crusaders 13-1 (Sean Owens 1)

[mr_niceguy_1979]

Round 2 results hot off the press. In Men's Open, they played very well against a very good team but the scoreline didn't indicate this. Mixed improved in their second game scoring 5 TDs. And the Women's Open defended really well to hold out last year's semi finalist to 0-1 at half time, and the Sharks needed to put together a number of phases in the 2nd half in order to get scores on the board.

Men's Open
Sunshine Coast Rustlers def. Crusaders 12-2 (Josh Mccormack, Jeffrey Dutschke 1)

Women's Open
Gold Coast Sharks def. Crusaders 6-0

Mixed Open
Sydney Rebels def. Crusaders 11-5 (Pania Mariu 2, Chris Mwaba, Steve Huynh, Stacey Howard 1)

[mr_niceguy_1979]

Round 3 of the Opens NTL tournament finished up tonight. The Men's came up against a very strong Mets side, but managed to score 4 TDs which is a promising sign of things to come on Day 2. The Women's are improving every game, and again the scoreline didn't show how close the game really was, going down to the Hornets. The Mixed found it tough in the last game of the day at 6:20 after their first game at 8:10, going down to a well drilled Rustlers side.

Men's Open
Sydney Mets def. Crusaders 12-4 (Tim Glazebrook, Benjamin Magi 1, Vu Le 2)

Women's Open
Hunter & Western NSW Hornets def. Crusaders 9-5 (Katie Nicholson, Bree Watkins, Amelia Kent, Sally Hamilton, Natalie Frizzell 1)

Mixed Open
Sunshine Coast Rustlers def. Crusaders 14-2 (Chris Mwaba, Jennifer Tait 1)

[mr_niceguy_1979]

Not such as early start for everyone in Round 4 games. At 10, the Mixed took on the NT/WA Barbarians, unfortunately going down 2-10. The Men's played at 11 and came up against a super strong Scorpions team, going down 14-0. But improving every game has paid off for the Women's, who managed a 6-3 win against arch rivals ACT. The girls are absolutely stoked with the result and are looking at taking this form through to the next game against the last year's champions. Round 5 is played late this afternoon

Men's Open
North Sydney Scorpions def. Crusaders 14-0

Women's Open
Crusaders def. ACT 6-3 (Bree Watkins, Amelia Kent, Leah Percy, Sally Hamilton, Melanie Johnson, Alyse Palmer 1)

Mixed Open
WA/NT Barbarians def. Crusaders 10-2 (Matthew Loughrey, Vincent Demaria 1 )

[mr_niceguy_1979]

In the second game for the day, the Mixed went down to the Hornets 3-10 to set up an Elimination Final against ACT at 6pm. The Women's were outclassed by last year's champions 2-10. The best result of the round was the Men's team result who overcame some big defeats over the first 2 days to step up and smash the Eagles 10-1. Finally at 6pm, the Mixed couldn't overcome the ACT going down 4-11.

Men's Open (Round 5)
Crusaders def. Northern NSW Eagles 10-1 (Thomas Ainslie, Richard Johnston, Ryan Johnson, Benjamin Magi, Jeffrey Dutschke 1, Vu Le 2, Tim Glazebrook 3)

Women's Open (Round 5)
Brisbane City Cobras def. Crusaders 10-2 (Nicole Treleaven, Sharon Lowe 1)

Mixed Open (Round 5)
Hunter & Western NSW Hornets def. Crusaders 10-3 (Matthew Loughrey, Tahlia Christie, Ashleigh Edwards 1)

Mixed Open (Elimination Final (Plate))
ACT def. Crusaders 11-4 (Matthew Loughrey, Madeleine Mcginty 1, Stacey Howard 2)

On day 3, Men's have their final game of the minor round at 8am against the Hornets. And Women's will wait until the final round is played at 8am on Day 3 before they know who they come up against

[mr_niceguy_1979]

The Men's kicked off the day with their last round game against the Hornets. In a very tight battle, the Crusaders fought hard and ended up on top with a gutsy 7-6 victory. This sets up a Plate Semi Final against arch rival ACT (who finished 6th out of 6 in pool A, Crusaders finished 5th out of 7 in pool B) at 11am.

Men's Open (Round 6 Game)
Hunter & Western NSW Hornets (Thomas Ainslie, Andrew Swain, Tim Glazebrook, Chris Katal, Vu Le 1, Josh Bessell 2)

The Women's have their Plate Semi final game against Scorpions at 11am also. The women's finished 5th out of 6 in pool A, the Scorpions finished 6th out of 7 in pool B

[mr_niceguy_1979]

Both the Men's and Women's played in Plate semi finals at 11.

The Women's came up against the Sydney Scorpions and had a finals game to remember, with a convincing 7-3 win. In the other semi final, the Rebels (finishing 5th also in the other pool) defeated ACT 9-2 to set up the Grand Final match. I wish the girls all the best of luck and it should be a cracker of a match with both sides evenly matched.

The Men's came up against a very strong ACT side, who never looked like losing. The ACT boys were a little fresher after having the morning off while the Crusaders boys had an early 8am match. The end result, 13-2 in favour of ACT.

Men's Open Plate Semi Final
ACT def. Crusaders 13-2 (Tim Glazebrook, Chris Katal 1)

Women's Open Plate Semi Final
Crusaders def. North Sydney Scorpions 7-3 (Katie Nicholson, Bree Watkins, Amelia Kent, Sally Hamilton, Patricia Car 1, Leah Percy 2)

[mr_niceguy_1979]

The Men's team finished the tournament with 2 wins against Northern NSW Eagles and Hunter & Western NSW Hornets in the minor round, earning them 5th place finish out of 7 in their pool. Their tournament finished with a semi final loss against ACT. Final place for the tournament was 11th out of 13.

The Mixed team tried hard all tournament but couldn't chalk up a win, their best effort a 5-11 loss to the Rebels. Their tournament finished with an Eliminational final loss against ACT. Final place for the tournament was 11th.

The Women's Open tournament included wins against ACT in the minor round and a Semi Final win against the Sydney Scorpions to put them in the Plate Grand Final against the Sydney Rebels and to decide 9th/10th place. The end result wasn't in the Crusaders favour, but 10th position (out of 13) was an admirable result for the girls considering the Women's Open competition this year was as strong as it has been.

Women's Open Plate Grand Final
Sydney Rebels def. Crusaders 6-2 (Leah Percy, Amelia Kent 1)