Brahman Captain/Coach Jason Brown helped guide his side to a narrow victory over Bungendore. photo by RIVA POTTER.
Trying to claw your way up a competition table is difficult enough and depending upon other clubs to knock out your opposition is close to impossible. Both Binalong sides were currently holding onto 6th place on their respective tables, and the Jersey Girls plight looked untenable in the face of their clash with the top placed Bungendore Tigerett’s on Saturday. Who would have thought the 9th placed Brahmans may chance a victory over Crookwell in late May 2017?
However, the Waldren Construction Brahmans had a slim chance of claiming 5th place on their table as a consequence of the Crookwell and Grissleys match, for and against did not favour Binalong but a big win by Binalong over the Tigers may well have put them into the top five. However, there was no big win for Binalong against the Tigers and the Jersey Girls were decimated.
An undefeated Tigerett’s absolutely dominated the Jersey Girls 78-0 with a first class lesson in how to play league tag, the Bungendore team clearly coming from a superior competition to lead at half time by 38-0. Taylor Frost and Cherrae Smith for Binalong tried everything they could think of but starved of field position and possession there was little they could do against a slick and well drilled opposition.
It was Tara McGrath-West who gave her all to save the Jersey Girls, she dived and plunged to prevent tries, but to no avail. In fact, the visitors play the ball speed was so fast that the defenders were having trouble just staying on side. Ange Taylor, Steph Cribb and Kelsey Dowling injected themselves into the defence, but to little effect. Nevertheless, the girl’s heads didn’t go down and they fought on to the end, a 78-0 loss.
Having only so far defeated Gunning and ADFA it appeared that Bungendore might be a relatively easy target for the home side. Played in fine conditions on a firm surface with little wind, not so! The Waldren Constructions Brahmans opened the scoring after 17 minutes with a crash over try to Danny Arabin wide on the right. Dylan Arabin converted for the 6-0 lead. The five minutes later, in the face of a very concerted Tigers attacking raid, Dylan Arabin took the odds to it and intercepted a long pass to run 60 metres and score under the posts. He converted his own try for a 12-0 lead and the hosts were cruising?
But were they, new recruit Dale Stuart edged his way over the stripe in the 29th minute for a 16-0 lead for the home side. But from this point on the Brahmans were struggling. The home side’s defence had been very strong and suddenly dipped and following a mess-up between players, Bungendore scored with 2 minutes remaining in the half for the 16-6 half time result. However, the two hookers had only just regained the field from 10 in the bin after a mutual disagreement.
A couple of things came to mind in this game, indecision in the in-goal from a kick-off and players not calling the ball as theirs. In general play, there seemed a reluctance to get under a high ball and rather let it bounce. Neither side were much good at this, but it is fundamental to the game, even in George Tooke Shield! It takes a lot of courage to stand under a ball which went up at an acute angle, so you need to run at it so your knees are up for protection when you take the ball.
The second half opened and Kobi Bradshaw who had done some good things in the first half capitalised on a mistake by the Tigers in-goal to plant the ball for a try which was not converted. Bradshaw had seen a penalty kick by the visitors which went wrong and fielded it on the full in the ground and made good metres with it. Another who does not see much of the ball was Dylan Downey who made good metres when he got his hands on the ball, opposition sides seem to target him because of his height.
The visitors upped their intensity as the hosts dropped theirs and in the 12th minute scored a converted try to post the 20-12 score line. The Brahmans woes continued this week as Drew Arabin suffered a serious knee injury on the Wednesday night and so lost another strike player. Brent Williams was again good along with Mick Spencer whilst Shawn Brown tackled anything with the ball.
With five minutes to go, the Tigers scored a very simple try under Binalong’s sticks, with the conversion at 20-18 and time remaining, the Brahmans looked likely to lose what looked to be a simple task at the beginning. The penalty count was at 15-9 against Binalong with just six minutes to go and they did well to hold on. A lot of these penalties were deserved but about a quarter were superfluous, needless to say the penalty count has to be brought down.
The game wound down with a victory for the home side 20-18, Captain Jason Brown, Dylan Arabin and Damo Norman steered the side around all afternoon but some intensity and purpose is needed for the Brahmans to get into the top five for a chance at the end of the year. A bye for the club next week may heal some minor bumps and bruises.
Result: Binalong 20 def Bungendore 18. Tries: Danny Arabin, Dylan Arabin, D.Stuart, and K.Bradshaw. Goals; Dylan Arabin (2).
bos Indicus .
