RUGBY UNION
Southern Shield Round 9
THE Southern Shield is no longer the foregone conclusion it was threatening to be as unbeaten Abigroup premiership rugby union leaders Forster Tuncurry were forced to withstand attacks and counter-attacks from their most pugnacious rivals in two seasons before defeating the Wallamba Bulls, 22-7, at Dolphins Field, Tuncurry.
The three tries to one and 15-point margin gives no indication of how tenacious the Bulls proved in a fast, physical and entertaining game, a win for the Dolphins ensured only by the desperate last-ditch tackles of their new fullback, David Birch. Three times, Birch brought off try-saving tackles before succumbing to a rib injury.
The Bulls look genuine premiership contenders come August. Led by their classy five-eighth Dale Higgins, their backs Jade Godbolt, Brendon Miller, Rob Avard, Josh Ede and Brent Gilmour will cause numerous problems for rivals.
Former Taree City Bulls rugby league captain-coach, the premiership-winning Dean Simpson, a prickly and competitive character, caused the Dolphins plenty of headaches, making the Dolphins’ match-winning combination at the scrum base, flanker Mark Hudson, half Brad Durham and pivot Tom Harris, work overtime to utilise the hard-earned possession their forwards won in scrums, lineouts and breakdowns.
Inevitably, at the heart of the Bulls’ vigorous performance was Mid North Coast Axemen’s representative flanker Daniel Hessing, stealing the ball or executing superb low tackles.
While the Dolphins gained their ninth successive win, the Old Bar Clams retained second position with a three tries to nil and 15-0 win over the Harrington Harlequins. Likewise, the Manning River Ratz followed up their strong game against the Dolphins by keeping the Gloucester Cockies tryless in winning 15-6.
The Wallamba Bulls’ performance was all the more meritorious given that they have not trained adequately for a month because of the waterlogged state of their ground at Nabiac. Coach Peter Doyle had his forwards training on their scrum machine under the lights of his machinery shed last week.
The arrival of former New Zealand provincial forward Nate Steyns should strengthen the Bulls’ pack though he obviously needs to run into condition as does MNC Under-19 backrower Jeremy Segol.
With the Dolphins’ robust lock Shane Dean injured, No 8 John Vakaahi moved into the second row to partner Ryan Fenning, and his power was sorely missed at the back of the scrum. Vakaahi’s punishing runs might have curbed the zeal of Simpson. But it takes a good team to keep Simpson quiet.
A dropped ball in the seventh minute saw outside-centre Max Elmes initiate the first try, linking with centre partner Col Harris before Trae Wilkins’ speed left Bulls rivals gasping in a sprint along the left touch line. Five-eighth Tom Harris then jinked his way over from 20 metres out only for rival pivot Higgins to retaliate, eluding the Dolphins’ defense for a try under the posts for the visitors to trail 7-12 at half-time.
Fullback Birch showed deft footwork to set up Vakaahi’s try, but with Wallamba showing no sign of running up the white flag, loose-head Lee Crozier’s two conversions and penalty goal provided the Dolphins with a match-winning buffer.
- Phil Wilkins
FORSTER TUNCURRY 22 (T Wilkins T Harris J Vakaahi tries; L Crozier 2 goals pen goal) beat WALLAMBA 7 (D Higgins try; J Godbolt goal).
Dolphins best and fairest: 3, Col Harris; 2, J Clarke; 1, D Birch. Ruckers’ Mug: B Durham.
OLD BAR 15 (T Brown J Beckett K Kerr tries) beat HARRINGTON 0. MANNING RIVER 15 (G Smyth L Bartlett K Maurirerie tries) beat GLOUCESTER 6 (T Threadgate 2 pen goals).
Next Saturday’s 10th round games: Forster Tuncurry v Harrington at Tuncurry; Old Bar v Manning River at Old Bar Reserve; Gloucester v Wallamba at Gloucester.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff
Twitter