Captain Clint Stevens gave away a couple of penalties on Saturday during the match against West Wyalong, however; his contribution was enormous. Stevens was brutal in both attack and defence, leading the forward pack after Coach Adam Walsh tore a calf muscle running onto the field to start the game. When asked what Walsh thought about Stevens’ effort he responded with, “Best game he has ever played.” The local electrician certainly provided plenty of spark for his fellow teammates.
The Harden Devils hosted the West Wyalong Weevils for ladies day last Saturday at Roberts Park. In what turned out to be a nice day, the Weevils were unable to bring a Golden Oldies team so unfortunately the proposed oldies game was cancelled. With Adam Walsh straining a calf muscle putting his socks on, the pressure to lead the forwards was well and truly put on Clint Stevens and he delivered. Despite having a much smaller pack the Devils put on two tries through the forwards to put them out to a 14-0 lead. One try to Seagull Sachs and the other from a great angled line run by Clint Stevens crashing over adjacent to the posts and breaking his 8 year try drought.
The Weevils stood firm and fought back strongly, maintaining possession with great forward running drawing 5 consecutive penalties. Slotting two penalties and with a try out wide West Wyalong looked to be getting on top with the score back to 14-11. The Devils regrouped and finally managed to turn over possession. Ben Lenahan took a run down a wide blind side, stood the winger up, drew the fullback and put the trailing Jessie Redmond over beside the posts. Following another try to Jack O’Connor the Devils went into half-time leading 28-21.
With the help of having a few extra subs, Harden dominated possession in the second half. Danny Flanery swooped on a loose ball at the base of the ruck and stepped through the line with just enough speed to cross under the posts for the first of his two tries. Billy Bolger scored the last try of the day backing up a great break from Ben Lenehan. The final score of 49-21 was not a true reflection of how close the game was.
Players’ Player went to Toby Haydon who was everywhere on the paddock and cover defended brilliantly. The three points went to Clint Stevens who had his best game of the year. Two points to Ben Lenehan who was a handful for the West Wyalong defence and kicked an amazing 7 from 7, and one point to Shahid Khalfan who is playing consistently well.
Coach Walsh was happy with the result, “We got on top early but relaxed and let them back into the game. They had some big forwards and got on top of us in the scrum though they did tire towards the end. I was happy with our defence in that we didn’t leak any points in the second half and it was always aggressive. A few times they were surprised when our smaller blokes picked them up and drove them backwards. I’m looking forward to see two tries from Flanery when they travel to Temora next week.” The next game is the last game of round one and is away at the current premiers, Temora. It should be a cracking top of the table clash. Harden head to Temora this Saturday for a 3:15pm kick off. Temora have lost onlyone match this season. The Devils will see how close they may be able to go to win the 2018 GrainCorp South Competition.