Round 4 of the Oilsplus South West Rugby Competition saw the Young Yabbies hosting the Condobolin Rams at Cranfield Oval. The weather this week was a lot more conducive to Rugby than what had been experienced through the first 3 rounds.
Yet again, Captain Brendan Shoard showed his skills at the coin toss, electing for the Yabbies to kick off towards the home crowd. The chase of the kick-off was fierce and saw hard hits from the Yabbies early on saw the ball turn over quickly.
The Yabbies began to build some momentum moving from one side of the field to the other before Scrumhalf Michael Stallard seized an opportunity, with a quick dart from the back of a ruck and making a break down the far side of the field. Excellent support play by the French Recruit Thomas Dudek saw the Yabbies cross the line for the first try within the first 5 minutes of the game. Conversion successful by Konah Miller
Young 7 – 0 Condobolin
The next 10 minutes saw some instances where tempers on both sides began to flare as the intensity of the game increased. Saw hard runs from Hamish “Hammer” Kaveney and Carlos Luna saw the Yabbies build up a head of steam few times, with a few let downs from handling errors. The kelpies Dan O’Connor and Dan Parker certainly made sure to test out the Condobolin ruck defence with their speed and hunger for the ball.
Not long after the new recruit Owen Griffiths took to the field, he demonstrated the potential flair he can add to the Yabbies backline. Owen got the ball out wide off the back of some steady build-up of phases in the centre of the field and used some fancy footwork to glide out the other side of a group of Condo players and show his pace over the last 30m to score under the posts. Conversion successful by Konah Miller.
Young 14 – 0 Condobolin
The Yabbies’ were pulled in by Captain Brendan Shoard at halfway during Konah’s conversion kick and told to keep up the intensity. Which they certainly did!
Strong runs from Will Munday, Dan Dowson & Hagon Williams pushed the Yabbies back down into Condo’s half with some good phase play opening up opportunities out wide. Some quick thinking and good hands from the backline saw Thomas Dudek utilise his twinkletoes, dancing through the Condo defence to cross the line again for the Yabbies. Conversion successful by Konah Miller.
Young 21 – 0 Condobolin
The final 10 minutes of the first half saw the play remain fairly centred around the halfway line, with neither time able to find holes in the other’s defence.
Half Time
Young 21 – 0 Condobolin
Condobolin must have had a good motivational speech at half time, because they started the second half with an absolute bang!
A handling error from the Yabbies saw Condo make metres very quickly, with play entering well into the Yabbies red zone. Some quick phase-play from Condo saw Paddy Ward come crashing through the Yabbies scrambling defence to score under the posts. Conversion successful by Jake Worland.
Young 21 – 7 Condobolin
The next 15 minutes saw a solid see-sawing battle for territory between the two teams, with both teams exhibiting some strong running and very solid defence. The Yabbies’ held their structure with their Forward pods making good metres as they moved across the field before Carlos Luna broke his with through the line and put everyone’s hearts in their mouths by opting for a grubber kick rather than passing. It was a hotly contested race for the line, which was won in the end by Beau “Bubbles” O’Connor. Conversion successful by Konah Miller.
Young 28 – 7 Condobolin
The Condo defence came charging off the kick-off with some big hits on the Yabbies’ runners, but the Yabbies’ continued their relentless attack and slowly made their way down the field.
Once they were deep into Condo’s territory, the Yabbies’ continued their slog, but Condo’s defence stood strong and managed to hold them out. The pressure from the Yabbies resulted in them being presented with a penalty right in front of the posts. Captain Brendan Shoard made the decision that the attacking efforts had to be rewarded and so he elected for the shot at goal. Penalty kick successful by Konah Miller.
Young 31 – 7 Condobolin
Condo came back hard off the kick-off, resulting in a handling error which presented them with another opportunity around halfway. Some quick moves by their backline saw them make some incredibly quick metres, with Owen Griffiths showing his worth again by undertaking another try-saving tackle, this one merely metres from the line. Some quick play by the Condo team saw them develop a 3 on 1 overlap which they quickly converted into a try with Toby Denyer crossing the line. Conversion successful by Jake Worland.
Young 31 -14 Condobolin
The last few remaining minutes played out with a similar intensity to the first few minutes of the second half, with neither side prepared for the game to be over.
Full Time Results
Young 31 – 14 Condobolin
Coach Ned Mullany commented “Full credit to the Condo boys, this was definitely a game of two halves and they never gave up. I’m really proud of our boys getting their first Win for the year, it’s been a long time coming.”
Ned’s comments were quickly drowned out by Captain Brendan Shoard leading the Yabbies’ in their team song to mark the victory.
Ned then went on, “My biggest comment from today is that we need to focus on maintaining our structure when we play an unstructured opposition, but we’ll focus on that at training. We’ve had a lot of focus at training for the last few weeks on our defence in terms of line speed and first up tackles and the improvement in the boys has me tickled pink.”
Yabbies’ Vice President Jeshua Smith piped in, “On the mention of Pink, don’t forget that next weekend is Ladies’ Day. Events co-ordinator extraordinaire Nick Duff and his team have pulled out all the stops, so it’s all set to be another cracking day at Cranfield Oval!”
From the conversations at the Australian Hotel Young post-match, both teams are looking forward to the re-match in Condobolin in 8 weeks time.
Points Scorers:
Young
Tries
Thomas Dudek (2), Owen Griffiths, Beau O’Connor
Conversions
4/4 - Konah Miller
Penalty Goals
1/1 – Konah Miller
Condobolin
Tries
Paddy Ward, Toby Denyer
Conversions
2/2 – Jake Worland
Best & Fairest Points:
3 – Hamish Kaveney
2 – Nick Schiller
1 – Owen Griffiths
Players Player – Carlos Luna
Next weekend (May 11th) is Ladies’ Day, which sees the Young Yabbies play against their closest neighbour the Harden Red Devils in what is expected to be an exhilarating match on the pitch and an extravaganza off the pitch for the Ladies! So lock it in and make sure you’re there on the sideline for the show-down at Cranfield Oval.
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