Sydney Uni snatches minor premiership

Sydney Uni Gold has snatched the minor premiership from Canberra, in the last round of competition, with a convincing 42:37 victory away to Canberra today.

The Gold team trailed Canberra the entire season, after conceding easy points early in the competition, but Uni Gold went in front today after securing their third win against Canberra this season. 

Canberra will now have to wait till Wednesday night’s clash between Hills and Harbourside to find out who their semi-final opponents are.  Hills must win their postponed Round 6 match against Harbourside, to take third spot on the ladder and meet Canberra in the semi-final.  Otherwise, Canberra will clash with Sydney Uni Blue for a spot in the league's main event.

Canberra will now have to wait till Wednesday night’s clash between Hills and Harbourside to find out who their semi-final opponents are.  Hills must win their postponed Round 6 match against Harbourside, to take third spot on the ladder and meet Canberra in the semi-final.  Otherwise, Canberra will clash with Sydney Uni Blue for a spot in the league's main event.

Canberra started well today and held a two goal lead briefly, near the end of the first half, but a 7 – 1 goal spree by Uni put Canberra on the back-foot for the rest of the match. 

It was another tough physical encounter between the league’s two top teams as two minute suspensions quickly tallied up.   However, twenty minutes into the game, Uni’s star back, Håvard Tønnessen, was rushed to hospital after a clash with Canberra’s Maciej Krawczyk left him with a vicious laceration to his chin that needed several stitches.

With Håvard out of the game, it was left to Kenneth Tørlen and Chris Koeszegi to pick up the pieces for Uni. The two young backs proved too difficult for the Canberra defence as they repeatedly combined to break through. The former Taysols back, Tørlen, picked up 18 goals for the match.

The veteran of Aussie handball, Zlatan Ivankovic top scored for Canberra with eight goals but the most impressive display came from right-back Gregor Oppermann.  The tall left hander scored seven out of seven shots from the penalty line, in a repertoire of shots that included three lobs.

Canberra finishes the league on the second spot with 24 points, 2 less than last year’s premiership winning performance and now has two weeks to come up with a strategy to hold on to the Championship shield.