Dolphins show spirit

Macauley Kippen moves ahead for the under-14 Noosa Dolphins, who went down 24-14 to Caloundra.

The Noosa Dolphins under-14s gave it everything in a tense, exciting game of rugby against Caloundra.

Caloundra opened the scoring with a converted try, but Noosa fought back with a typical rampaging run from number 8 Aden Troxell to score under the posts to level.

Just before half-time, Caloundra skirted down the touchline from broken play to go to the break up by just five points with the conversion hitting the post.

In the second half, Caloundra scored again to take a commanding lead, but the Dolphin spirit rose up again to fight back with another determined try by Sam Murray off some great forward lead-up work.

A great conversion by courageous number 15 Eli Pilz meant a converted try would win it for the boys with the score at 19-14. A rehearsed lineout move from Caloundra in the dying minutes saw them cross over in the corner and snuffed out any chance of a Dolphin win.

The young players showed tremendous spirit to come from behind again and again but the pressure finally told as they lost to a determined Caloundra side 24-14 in a wonderful game.