2017 Round 16 Champ B1 vs Mandurah Pirates RUFC

Coach Dan King said –

"That was a belter of a game!

Sadly we went down 17 – 14 but I am extremely pleased with how the lads performed, nobody is down or flat after this. We learn each week and there are lots of positives from the game and we focus on those and with a few tweaks at training I am sure we will be back on track.

Mandurah know there we tested today and through our mistakes they very lucky to stay in the game. I thought we prepared well all week, training has been great and the lads have been positive as they always are, both Junior and myself couldn’t ask for any more from them.

Things didn’t start off well as we lost Jason King to a concussion in the warm up, Hami Henry had a hamstring injury and Ray pulled a calf muscle so losing three key positions was a bit tough but we soldered on.

It was hard to pick a man of the match. I think Steve Charlwood had an awesome first game for us at prop, and also Konnor Day was dangerous at fullback and had his best game of the season in my eyes so I think I’d give it to those two.

Focus points to work on are defence for sure as we went too high on their big runners so that’s a fix for this week, our scrum and lineout was solid as always and our jumpers performed really well. We missed a few key positions on the back as I said through injury but we coped very well considering and everyone stepped up, we know we have things to work on and we will be better for this game.

It was a very hard and physical game and a few of our boys have knocks so we need to monitor those in week, it was to be expected as they suffered so many high shots and no arm tackles. The referee was very poor today and didn’t protect our lads. Our discipline was spot on and the way we conducted ourselves on the pitch was very impressive.

Big week ahead and the show goes on very proud of my team as always."

Team

1. Loose head prop Charlwood, Stephen
2. Hooker Meyer, Bruce C
3. Tight head prop Ayscough, Jack
4. Left lock Cleary, Thomas D
5. Right lock Swinny, Irwin E
6. Left flanker Niemann, Branden
7. Right flanker Woodford, Brad J
8. Number eight Jackson, Peter (c)
9. Scrum half Clifton, Michael A
10. Fly half Tairea, Junior
11. Left wing Jacques, Jayden P
12. Left centre Keepa, Reuben
13. Right centre Rigby, Blake E
14. Right wing Hutton, Daniel R
15. Full back Day, Konnor J
16. Reserve Halliday, Craig A
17. Reserve Delome, Kurt D
18. Reserve Terry, Jak
19. Reserve Lamatoa, Jared
20. Reserve Van Sittert, Dawid
21. Reserve Hinder, Rawiri M
22. Reserve Chapman, Chris B
23. Reserve Coffey, Timothy J

Scorers

Tries
Swinny, Irwin E x 1

Conversions
Penalties Day, Konnor J x 3