Perth Gold 86 Defeat Tassie Jack Jumpers 0

[Burgs]

Defending champions Perth Gold has continued on in Hobart today to record their second win in the 2006 Australian Rugby Shield over the Tassie Jack Jumpers 86 points to nil.
In a clear mismatch of experience, Perth Gold nearly matched by half time the Jack Jumpers first full match last week against the Melbourne Axemen of 56-8, with a staggering 52-0 scoreline!
As is inevitable in this kind of fixture, the foot came off the pedal a little in the second half however, the scoring opportunities kept rolling in for a 34 point second half.
With plenty of kicking opportunities, Charlie Norcross raked up a personal tally of 36 points from four tries and eight conversions.
Perth Gold showed good discipline to not allow any penalty shots to blemish the scorecard.

Perth Gold 86 (Charlie Norcross (4),Ryan Lenegan (3), Tim Ashman, Sean Ashton, Dan Bailey, Joe Egan, Nathan Roberts, Ryan Symes, Ryan Tyrell Tries. Charlie Norcross 8 Conversions.)
Tassie Jack Jumpers 0

Despite the one sided nature of the match, Coach Des Thornton had praise for the Tassie boys and it is reported to have been a very physical encounter.
The Jack Jumpers will be on a huge learning curve from the experience of these matches and should look to the improving history of the Darwin Mosquitoes over the last few years as inspiration for the future.
The Perth Gold Squad will have to wait for the results from Adelaide tonight to see if Melbourne are able to pull off an equally large win to keep Perth from the top of the ladder on Points Differential.
Assuming a Melbourne victory tonight, Perth go on to meet our long term rivals next Saturday in Melbourne to determine who will top Pool 2 and host the Semi Final on May 27.

For the official report visit the article on RugbyWA's website.

www.westernforce.com.au/wa/wa.rugby/page/44828

[MysticBalls]

Is there a need Burgs for the Aussie Shield to be two tier given the above result which doesn't really help the Tassies. State v state won't help develop things where there is no S14 team present to hone developments or focus.

Tassie would probably go better against Vic Country or Southern NSW or SA Country at this stage.
Whats the format of the Shield anyway?

[Burgs]

There is a chance that it may evolve into a two tier comp MB, perhaps as a result of whatever they decide at the APC Summit at the end of the month.
It's one of the great problems of building comps in Australian Rugby that there is such a huge range in ability and depth at any given level so the stronger States/Cities/Regions need to be split if we are to help the weaker ones to grow.
The reference to the Darwin Mosquitoes was to acknowledge how far they have come, having had one win from their first four years and enduring defeats to NSW Country of 2000- 63-3, '01- 76-7 & '02- 86-10.
They have now developed to the stage that they can hold their own against the lower teams on a given day and even give the top ones a bit of a nudge such as 2004 Queensland Country won by Darwin 21-16 and Perth Gold lost by Darwin 32-29.
A bit like publicity, some say any experience is good experience so it may actually slow the growth if these "lower" teams are not exposed to strong opposition.