After days of doom and gloom – weather wise, the dark clouds rolled back and the winter rains subsided, revealing a brilliant sunny afternoon for the clash between the Harden Hawks and neighbouring rivals the Binalong Brahmans, on a lush and sparkling McLean Oval.
The Hawks were aiming to keep the flame alive with home-town glory. The Brahmans expecting to remain on top of the ladder, just above Harden.
The kick-off heralded a glut of possession for the Hawks in the initial 10 minutes, where they forced 2 repeated drop-outs from their opposition from under the post, with accurate kicks. Another relentless raid by the Hawks saw Chris Beal on the end of a backline movement, race over for a good try which was converted by Abed Atallah, and Harden led 6-0.
Binalong were struggling, and slow out of the blocks, hampered by little possession and over anxiousness, further added to their woes, when they gave away a penalty right in front of their posts. Atallah added 2 more points, for the Hawks 8-0 advantage.
Then the Hawks great start, started to show signs of what could come against them. A dropped ball from the resuming kick-off, put the Binalong boys on the attack, from which their fullback Cook, touched down, for a much needed, but unconverted try. Harden 8 Binalong 4.
The Brahmans are a team who like to play the game of Rugby League at speed. Gathering momentum a deft kick was lobbed into Harden’s in-goal area for Josh Butt to dive on and even the score at 8 all.
Naturally the half-time siren couldn’t split the teams, but the second half period would. Play see-sawed between both 20 metre lines for a big part of the ensuing 15 minutes, and the match had developed into a titanic struggle.
The Hawks were forced into a goal-line dropout, enabling Binalong possession, with Irvin scoring to break the deadlock and gain the ascendency for Binalong at 14-8.
The match was there for the taking, and was being played in a good spirit. However it was then that a scuffle erupted for an unknown reason, resulting in a Brahman ending up in the sin-bin. Binalong however were compensated somewhat for this soon after gaining a 40-20 kick. The Harden Hawk’s defence was equal to the task, and stood firm.
The Hawks attacked in a last ditch effort to grab the equaliser, but had the final pass knocked down. In the final flickering few minutes our locals had a couple of chances, but had to concede to the Binalong Brahmans, who just shadowed the Hawks 14-8.
The match was a dire struggle for both sides, a good hit-out, and hopefully a rehearsal for the Grand Final. HARDEN has the bye this week, then its Boomanulla in Canberra on Aug. 2.
WINGS.
