Round 6 - 21.05.25

Well at least it didn’t rain, but the Rebels’ trip to Casino didn’t quite work out as hoped.

A combination of injuries, absences and unavailability among the men left us short of players in second grade, so we had no choice but to forfeit that match. We were also left with a limited bench for first grade and were forced to make a number of last-minute positional changes during the warm-up. Not an ideal preparation.

The women’s team had the opposite problem – too many players! There were 17 Rebel women all rearing to go for a 10-a-side game, leaving Coach Brett “Call me Elvis” McClaren with an interesting challenge in managing his subs to give everyone some time on the field.

The Casino Bulls are a notoriously tough club to beat at home. Big, physical, and aggressive, and that’s just the crowd! Our women soon discovered how tough they are on the field as well. We were quickly on the back foot against their bullying style of attack (pun intended) and struggled to find our patterns and rhythm. We brought the ballet but they brought the beef.

Casino were on top for most of the game, running in six tries. It wasn’t all one-way traffic, with our captain Shyanne Appleby crossing for a hard-earned score, but by the final whistle it was a clear win for the home side, 32 – 5.

In the men’s first grade game the scale of the challenge was evident from the moment the new-look Casino side took the field. They have recruited strongly from the Pacific Islander community and are probably now the biggest team man-for-man in the competition. They had the Rebels under sustained pressure for the first five or ten minutes after the kick-off, but some excellent goal-line defence held them out and eventually turned the tide. After that the game became an even, see-sawing affair with both sides finding scoring opportunities.

Casino scored first with a penalty goal and an unconverted try but then the Rebels took the lead following a try to George Garnett and two penalty goals to Jay Manson. Then the Bulls snatched it back again with a try just before half-time. At the break it was 13 – 11 to Casino and the game was wide open.

The field was very boggy and the ball was slippery, which didn’t suit our fast-paced style of play, but it also made the going heavy for the big men from Casino. As the second half progressed it started to feel like they were running out of steam and the Rebels were gettingon top. Sam Valpy scored a well-worked try, which Jay Manson converted then followed up with another penalty goal, 21 – 13 to the Rebels. But the Bulls wouldn’t give up and replied with a converted try in the 60th minute to make it a one-point ball game, 21 – 20.

Once again, the Rebels regained the momentum and came close to scoring before opting to take another penalty to make it 24 – 20. That should have been enough to secure the result, but a series of minor errors and consecutive penalties gifted field position to the Bulls and they managed to crash over in the dying minutes, urged on by their enthusiastic home crowd. The final score was Casino 27, Byron Shire 24.

Written by Dave Phillips