Binalong Brahmans lodge resounding victory over Rams

By bos Indicus

Brahmans V Rams.

RUGBY LEAGUE: The final round of Woodbridge Cup for 2015 found Binalong at Condobolin and with Eugowra, Condobolin and Binalong all on 29 points in League Tag, there would be a scramble for second and third places as Eugowra had the best of differential and the bye for the weekend. The Binalong Youth League had a bye and play at Condobolin next Sunday.

The Jersey Girls arrived to discover only nine opponents at Condobolin. It turned out to be a less than easy task to dispose of the hosts as Condo fought hard all the way and from mostly better field position. The home side crossed first after seven minutes for a 4-0 lead after forcing two line-drop outs from the Binalong girls. Lucy Hammond and Jess Howard defended well then after 12 minutes Bron Pollack made a wide sweep to score and Ali Giles converted for the 6-4 advantage.

With only three minutes left in the first half, Condobolin dropped the ball and reset field position for Binalong’s Ang Taylor to score, Giles’ conversion made it 12-4 at the break. When play resumed things went wrong for the home side again and Maddie Miller crossed the chalk, the conversion saw the score at 18-4. However, the Jersey Girls made the going tough for themselves with spilled passes and at times, poor ball control. 

As the game went on, the visitors seemed to grow in confidence and made less mistakes. They tried differing moves that looked attractive and suddenly Lisa Naughton made a magnificent line break and Sam Bailey finished off the long range try. Alison Giles’ kicks in general play were excellent all day. With 11 minutes left, Condobolin struck again to bring the score to 24-10.

With only sixty seconds until full time, Bron Pollack broke through a tiring defence; Kaylah Smith converted for the final 30-10 result.

The Jersey Girls must face off with Condobolin again next Sunday at Pat Timmins Oval. To progress any further, their ball control has to improve as Condobolin will be obliged to turn up with a full squad for this game.

In first grade, a resounding 60-20 victory over the Rams has Binalong in a less than over-enthusiastic frame of mind over their chances of a Grand Final appearance in 2015. 

“We have enormous respect for the four remaining sides in this competition,” remarked Brahmans President Michael Brayshaw after the game.

“We aren’t taking any of the upcoming games lightly by any means; we could still slip up somewhere and trash a really successful 2015 season.”

Condobolin has a very heavy and powerful pack and the 26 degrees in the west appeared to not help them and they were continually turned around and made to retreat by clever kicks by the Brahmans. The visitor’s mistakes with handling diminished somewhat from previous weeks and it was at times all one-way traffic for Binalong.

Andrew Swaffield tore the defence to shreds again and got a hat-trick for the day. The return of 5/8 Scott Naughton really opened the game up for the Brahmans, his timing of passes and running game opened gaps everywhere in Condo’s defence line.

Bench forward Anthony Merritt scored his first try for the season at the 55 minute mark.

Chris Rawlinson took on the hit line frequently and the home side had no answers, the half time score was 32-10. Ben Potts, Tony Worthy and Reuben Olah took it up to the Rams all day and were unrelenting in defence.

When the second half opened, Binalong started to throw the ball around, made line breaks and made for some really electric football, the mistakes seemed to dry up as well and they were full of running for the second 40.

Condobolin were missing a very capable little halfback due to an off-field accident some time ago and this hurt them badly. Readers may remember our article from the Brahmans home game in round nine at Binalong where the Rams almost defeated the Brahmans at home, had this half back played last Saturday, the result could have been quite different. After all, there were 80 points scored in Saturday’s game, 20 of them against Binalong!

With the Minor Premiership in their keeping, Binalong now retreat for a week to heal a few injuries, not the least of which is a bad knee injury to back rower Ben Spencer, who did not complete the game and is unlikely to play before the end of the finals. On a lighter note, bench forward Anthony Merritt scored his first try for the season at the 55 minute mark to the delight of the bench. Phil Sparnon kicked eight from 11 goals and ran the ball himself and scored one try.

In other results: Peak Hill narrowly kept Eugowra out of the top five by 33-30 at Peak Hill, Canowindra 32 got home against Grenfell 20, Trundle 38 defeated Burrangong 12 and Cargo 44 defeated Gooloogong 10. These results mean that neither of the 2014 Grand Finalists Cargo and Eugowra finishes in the 2015 top five. How the game changes? Next weekend, Peak Hill takes on Trundle at Condobolin in the Sunday game, and Canowindra face off with Grenfell.

Brahmans 60: tries: A.Swaffield (3), S.Naughton (2), H.Paton (2), G.Sherrett, T.Worthy, A.Merritt and P.Sparnon. Goals: P.Sparnon (8) defeated Condobolin 20. Referee: Mr.Wayne Prosser.