First Divvies Achieve Success

This one was a mere three minutes old when Rower’s #10, Recinos, spotted an opening down the blind side and showed a clean pair of heels on his 60m run to the try line.  Rowers were good value and added another for a 12 – 0 lead, somewhat deflating the CW lads.  At the fifteen minute mark, Grdic, playing #15 on this day, somehow found himself burrowing at the ruck and over the line, 7 – 12 to Rowers.  Play then settled and became quite spirited, a good spectacle.  Five minutes from the interval, DJ Sears showed the place of a loosie rather than FRF member and dished to Daumer who finished, tied the score and provided the picture to prove it!  Almost from the restart, with Captain Chips leading from the front, he broke away from his own 22m, fed Mikey Crawford (who was playing his first ever game on the wing).  This man also has exceptional pace and this burst could well shun him from his fellow FRF mates!  Crawford fed #10 Hammond who crossed for a quality try and a CW half time lead, 17 – 12.

On restart, play ebbed and flowed but when CW found themselves under the gun, with a yellow card, Rowers took heart and threw some serious effort towards scoring.  We think it was #13 Samija, who again threatened.  He caused the hosts fits all day, every time he chose to run.  Wave after wave of retained possession was met with stout defense, including a couple of goal line stands.  It was intriguing stuff!  Finally, Rowers were rewarded with a try from some broken play and the aforementioned #10 and 13 being prominently involved.  The conversion was missed and many thought 17 – 17 to be a fair standoff.  Rowers came again and some disappointingly, poor tackling very nearly cost the game.  As luck would have it, from a defensive lineout, CW worked the ball downfield and somewhat against the flow of play, Sears got his hands on the ball, bobbled it, spun around and burst thirty meters for the line.  The try was converted and the score held up, CW playing the spoiler, 24 – 17 and crawling out of the basement with Rowers earning a valuable bonus point to stay in the top four.

The man on the verandah liked young 18 year old, French #9, Roucher and his combination with Hammond @ #10, was noteworthy.  The pack led the way with Middleton, Daume, Sears, Lamb and Haight, all very solid.  Larsen, Grdic and Crawford (for forty) also tried to make things happen.  Next week it is off to Burnaby who are one point out of first place and upset The Norsemen’s apple cart last week and positively pounded Ceedub at home ( 59 – 14). It would be a giant hurdle but one can expect this current crew not to shirk from the challenge.  Well done, Ones!