Beau O’Mara on the charge for Binalong. With the Binalong girls enjoying the bye, the Waldren Brahmans had the opportunity to re-take fifth position from Crookwell on the ladder by defeating Boomtown at Binalong on Saturday. But with some recent improvement by the Narrabundah side, this job would never be easy! Having rained most of the morning, the wet conditions started to ease only to be replaced by a freezing westerly breeze and the game commenced at only 8 degrees.
The Waldren Brahmans had the kick-off and immediately put the ball out on the full. On a positive note, the players were greeted with a referee and not one but two touch judges, how many years has it been? So, from the penalty on half way, the Brahmans were under immediate pressure to defend their try line. Indeed, the match went from end to end for the next twenty minutes until the Brahmans forced a line drop out which resulted in a try to James Blair in the 27th minute, Dylan Arabin missed the conversion in the strong breeze and it was 4-0. Tim Crellin was busy all day from dummy half and made a number of breaks. Beau O’Mara attacked and defended well from the right wing but it was Dylan Arabin who outpaced the Raiders and went in to score his try and then convert it with 2 minutes remaining in the half. The referee was very happy with the whistle and blew 17 penalties against both teams.
When the sides returned from the sheds, the Boomanulla players were determined to redeem themselves and that they did scoring a try in the seventh minute, score 10-4. However, Lachlan Patterson and Dylan Downey were taking the ball up strongly, ably supported by lock Mick Spencer with his usual strong performance. A lot of passes were just not sticking for the hosts, but Boomanulla turned over more possession. For a second week, some friction emerged in the closing stages and after two scuffles, the Boomanulla 5/8 was called out, sent to the bin for 10 and back-chatted the referee and was sent off.
Down to 12 defenders the visitors were now in trouble. Then in the 18th minute Ben Boyton produced one of his searing runs and crossed the chalk, Arabin took a very difficult conversion attempt from wide out and nailed it for Binalong’s 16-4 lead. Dylan Arabin takes a lot of risks in general play and some he wins, some he doesn’t but he was very good under the high ball on Saturday.
Nevertheless, as with last week at Crookwell, James Blair wasn’t finished yet and put in an absolutely blistering run down against the right defence, bowled over 2 defenders and went in for his second for the day. Again Dylan Arabin stepped up to the plate and completed the conversion for the final score of 22-4. I note with scores in that Crookwell gave the Tigers a scare with a 4 point loss at Mick Sherd Oval. Saturday’s results now find the Brahmans on 14 points on their own in fifth place after Harden had a big 50-0 win over Gunning. Binalong 22 def Boomanulla 4, Tries: J.Blair (2), Dylan Arabin, B.Boyton. Goals: D.Arabin (3). bos Indicus
