2017 Semi-Final Champ B vs Bunbury Barbarians RUFC

Coach Dan King said –

This was always going to be a big game, whenever we play Bunbury you are always in a tough contest and they took it to us today.

All week the weather had been forecast for storms and rain and we were blessed with a perfect day for rugby, a massive thanks to Arks rugby club for making us feel very welcome and looking after us today.

This was a very exciting game today I am so proud of the squad, that was a great performance against a very good opposition who lifted their game for this contest. Some of the hits and tackles were massive, I know a few of the lads will be hurting tomorrow for sure. There are as always things we need to work on for the final, but today is all about the players and they looked like they enjoyed themselves out there. Lineouts and scrums went and at times Bunbury really caused us problems at scrum time and in the broken play. If they had executed their handling a bit better they might have scored a few trys but finals rugby brings out the best in players and tests them, today we showed we can handle it.

There was a pretty strong wind out there and they didn’t use it well in the first half and we went in at halftime on top and really punished them in the second half. I thought Nathan played really well and kicked with accuracy for goal and for touch, it was good to have him back after his injury. PJ made some strong runs as did Irwin and the rest of the forwards. There was some big carries from the backs, notably Rueben and Blake and Jayden almost scored as well, would like to say a special mention to Kurt who made some massive tackles today for his size he gets stuck in also Dan Hutton had a solid game. Selection next week will be tough and I want to thank all of the squad for their excellent commitment to training and the performance they put on for us today.

The lads closed the game out superbly and our discipline was spot on, we have one last week together so we will be positive and enjoy it as much as possible.

Team

1. Loose head prop Ayscough, Jack
2. Hooker Meyer, Bruce C
3. Tight head prop Chapman, Chris B
4. Left lock Coffey, Timothy J
5. Right lock Niemann, Branden
6. Left flanker Swinny, Irwin E
7. Right flanker Finlay, Timothy
8. Number eight Jackson, Peter (c)
9. Scrum half Clifton, Michael A
10. Fly half Henry, Hami
11. Left wing Rigby, Blake E
12. Left centre Keepa, Reuben
13. Right centre Lamatoa, Nathan I
14. Right wing Delome, Kurt D
15. Full back Hutton, Daniel R
16. Reserve Baker, Aaron
17. Reserve Cleary, Thomas D
18. Reserve Rule, Benjamin J
19. Reserve Griesel, Dean
20. Reserve Charlwood, Stephen
21. Reserve Jackson, Murray P
22. Reserve Olislaegers, Ben P
23. Reserve Van Sittert, Dawid
24. Reserve King, Jason
25. Reserve Woodford, Brad J
26. Reserve Jacques, Jayden P

Scorers

Penalty Try (7)
Blake Rigby Try
Nathan Lamatoa 4 x Pen