Round 11 Wrap-up

Round 11 of FMG Premiership rugby saw all Senior teams back home, with our Colt’s aiming to move into second place on the ladder with a win over Associates, our Ladies Community 10s taking on ARKS and our Senior Men’s Grades taking on Rockingham. Adding to the occasion, Max Veech would be running out for his 100^th Premier Grade game, and the boys were keen to rack up a big win to celebrate and to keep our Top 6 aspirations alive.

With finals footy knocking at our door, our Colts had to come out and make a big statement against strong opposition in Associates. The boys shot out of the gate, and with only 5 minutes on the clock Baysie managed to bring the ball down from the first lineout of the game and drive it over the line from a well-controlled maul for the first 5-pointer of the game. Our boys continued to control the first half of the first half, and managed to put another 2 tries on ‘Soaks to see the lead extend to 19-0 at the half. With the score in favour of Bayswater at half time, things were looking good for the boys. But as they say rugby is a game of two halves and Associates were not just going to roll over and let us take the win.

The ’Soaks came out firing and completely dominated the first 20 minutes of the second half. Running with purpose, continually bending the line, and controlling the ball well around the breakdown. In fact the execution from ‘Soaks was so good, we didn’t actually get a hand on the ball for the first 15 minutes of the half. Despite the lack of possession and territory full credit must go to our boys and the way they fought to keep ourselves in the game. This relentless pressure had seen our 19-0 lead shrink back to 19-10, and there was a growing felling that unless we were able to shift the momentum and score again this one might actually get away from us. This moment came with approximately 10 minutes left to play when we finally managed to get the ball down into ‘Soaks 22m line. Looking to run the ball from danger the ‘Soaks ball carrier came high into contact, and we were able to rip the ball 10m out and cross for the easiest of tries under the posts. The resulting conversion took the lead to 26-10, and the ‘against the run of play’ nature of the try given the barrage we had to endure on defence seemed to break ‘Soaks hearts, and this is how it finished. YEH THE BOYS!!! Special mentions go to Issac Evans with a man of the match performance, Tama Mason scoring a double meat pie, Ricardo Ellison and Kahu Walker with a try a piece, and big ups to our goal kicker Mekhi Koha with 3/4 conversions.

Next up are our Women’s team, who once again showed amazing development in skills and confidence in their game against ARKS. As well as having the support of playing at our home grounds, the women have shown their determination to learning the game they have all grown to love. We started the game with great defensive against a large and physical ARKS side, and having run in a couple of tries of our own found ourselves in the contest at 10-17 to ARKS at half time. The tactics and plays taught by coaches Drew and Mark were on full display, and the women showed off the skills they have tirelessly worked on perfecting at training.

The second half is where most of the action was, with Jess Yaksich gaining massive meters and scoring an amazing runaway try, and Alannah Sheffield also securing her first try of the season. The ladies played the best game they have played all season and used every tactic they knew to hold off the strength of the ARKS women. After an amazing game from both sides the women were down by only 2 tries at the final whistle, 20-34. A testament to how far the ladies have come, with the last outing against ARKS resulting in a 50-0 beating. Saturday’s game showed just how much the women have improved since their first game and they are only growing in confidence and skill. A massive thank you to all our Baysie supporters for cheering the ladies on and for the continued support of the Club’s women’s team.

Moving onto the Senior Men’s round vs. Rockingham, our Third Grade came into the match following a heartbreaking 6-point loss last start to Palmyra, having conceded after the whistle to cede the lead, and needing a bonus point win to get their season back on track. The game could probably not have started brighter for the boys in Black, with a 4^th minute try to Tyson Sadd opening our account and the subsequent conversion getting us out to an early 7-0 lead. Tyson added a second 4 minutes later to take our tally to 12. We capped our scoring in the first half with Andrew Guy crossing in the shadows of half time and then converting his own try, which added to a 27^th minute penalty took his personal tally for the half to 12 points and our score to 19. The 2^nd half was a much tighter affair, but we did manage to cross for a final try on 54 minutes to ice the win and secure our 4 try bonus point. The teams  4^th try also represents wing Kainn McHenry’s first try for the club, which was really special to see from a guy who had never played rugby prior to this season, and has put in a tremendous amount of work to bring his game up to the level it now is. Well done Kainno!! Final score was Perth Bayswater 29, Rockingham 12 with the boys having secured the bonus point win they needed.

Next up over on field 1 was our Reserves, with the boys coming off a disappointing defeat at the hands of Palmyra there was plenty to prove and play for. Kicking off away from the clubhouse we quickly regained possession through great pressure on the receiver from Darcy Grealish and our defence, getting up and forcing the turnover. Converting this into an early try for Sam Faoagali, after some good phase play led to him receiving a great pass from the better Sam* and crossing the line. However, soon after a few mistakes led to Rockingham running 60 metres and scoring a try of their own. This was to be the tale of the game: rocks and diamonds from Perth Bayswater, making the game ours to win or lose. Not long after this another great bit of phase play saw us back down in Rockingham’s 22m and converting soon after, with some great hands out wide leading to a Nathan Hardwick try (diamonds). However, we soon handed Rockingham the ball again, and again allowed them to run another 69m to score (rocks…). The remainder of the first half was a back-and-forth battle with some big decisions not going our way, rattling the boys a little. Going into half time a big fire up was needed.

With a few changes made at half time the much-awaited return of THE Sifa Lama, straight out of South Auckland was complete. The boys were stuck into it early in the second half but it seemed much of the same from the first half was in store. With the lead changing multiple times the boys were able to get up finally through great tries to Chedyn, and the world record for slowest try scored to Clancy Lagan-Brown (showing a bit of pace on the very odd occasion he has a good game). Special mentions go to Tyson, Cole, Zsen, Jayden, Aidan and Taurean for sticking around to bench for us after your games: it is much appreciated and helps us out a lot. Other special mentions go to Danny Spina for being the first prop to ever drop a ball 10 metres out on a clean break with no one around, your efforts do not go unnoticed, and to Adam Re who played his last game of the season before going FIFO, thanks for all your performances this season brother.

* the views of the author Sam Thornley, which may not reflect the views of the Perth Bayswater Rugby Union Club 😊

In the afternoon’s main event Centurion Max Veech led our Premier Grade out vs Rockingham, with the boys keen to put on a display worthy of the occasion. Given ladder positions, recent results, and the lingering buzz around the club after our last-start win over Palmyra, expectations heading into this clash were that we would win this one easy, rack up a bonus point and a decent boost to our For/Against. But experience has shown me these are often danger games that catch out the unprepared, and punish hubris and that our boys would need more than to
‘just turn up’ to get what we need out of this game.

The start was not our best. Rockingham’s kick-off landed short of 10m, but it bounced over the line and from our first carry Nuku got isolated, our cleanout missed the jackaling Rockingham player and we had conceded a penalty 40m out. Rocking ham took the shoot looking to get the first points on the board. Their shot was wide, we were off the hook, and we had an opportunity to re-start from the 22m. Our first real attacking opportunity would come a few minutes later from a defensive lineout just outside of our 22m. Rockingham were able to secure the ball, however Nuku’s pressure on the pass from the 9 forced a turnover, and after a strong carry from Max to set-up quick ball we spread it wide through hands, with Andrew Ramsden joining the line to give us a 1 man advantage and put Tele Teo away down the right hand touchline. In his first Premier Grade start after last week’s debut off the bench Tele showed great pace to make the break and then linked up inside with first Manu and then halfback Josh Stops who broke one tackle before offloading back to Manu. We had advanced the ball +60m in one sweeping move, but unfortunately Manu lost the ball in contact, and we were unable to capitalise on the opportunity. This would prove to be the tale of our first half: we would do something really well, a huge scrum setting up quick ball for our backs, or a half break and then back it up with a pushed pass that went to ground or a kick for touch that ran dead in goal, and as a result we found it really hard to impose ourselves as dominantly as we would have liked. We did cross for three well-taken tries.

The first went to Andrew Ramsden, who capitalised on a dominant scrum within the Rockingham 22m and with penalty advantage took the ball from halfback Josh Stops and used his pace to get on the outside of the defender and momentum carried him over the line. This was very quickly erased by Rockingham’s first (and would prove to be only) try of the match coming from a simple dropped ball 40m out from our line which was picked up by Rockingham 12 Josh Hanson who raced away to score. The second try went to Danny Vaevae on the back of an excellent single-phase counterattack from a Rockingham clearing kick. Scrumhalf Josh Stops smartly tapped the ball back in the direction of Liam Becker to stop the ball going into touch, Liam’s long Pass found Andrew Ramsden in space who carried the ball into the Rockingham half before linking up with Chris Saulala who in turn turned the ball inside to Manu, who drew the fullback before passing it out to Danny who dotted down near the posts: sublime! The third and final for the half went to Nuku Pauta on the stroke of halftime who took the ball from the back of a dominant scrum and dived over. No lu8ck from the tee, saw us up 15-7 at the break.

If the first half start was sluggish the second started with a bang. Second half substitute Otu Mausia’s kick-off was kicked out of the air back upfield and into the arms of Nuku, who fired a pass straight over to Otu who kicked for the corner earning us a 50-22 and throw into the lineout deep inside Rockingham’s 22m. This field position led to our first try of the half – Tele picking up a pass on the bounce out wide and showing great strength to force his way over out wide. Now for those who caught the game live on Saturday and have followed my write ups this season, you may expect this now to mark my drop into a verbose description of the next 35 minutes, trawling through my thesaurus to find ever more adjectives to describe the scintillating rugby master class our Numbats doled out. But do you know what dear readers? Sometimes less is more. Instead, all I will say is that our second half was (almost) faultless. We did not allow Rockingham into the game at all, and executed our game plan to perfection. The result was tries at 42’, 46’, 56’, 63’, 66’, 78’, and 83’ minutes to Stops, Saulala, Tatafu, Ramsden, S Faoagali and Olow. 10 tries to 1 and a 58-7 bonus point win. A fitting tribute to Max Veech and his 100 games for the club.

Player Watch

Much the same as last week’s win, it seems harsh to call out a few players when the team played so well as a whole, but here it goes.

1. Brandon Olow got massive wraps from me last week for his exceptional defence and an honourable mention for his strong ball running, this week the story is reversed. He defended well again including some memorable dominant tackles (don’t run there Rocko boys…) but he was immense this week in attack carrying strongly and shrugging tackles like he was playing against the U8s.
2. Andrew Ramsden had his best game for the club this season in an assured game at the back, his pace was electric, and he threatened each time he had his hands on the ball. He also linked well with his wingers and his positional play and kicking was strong.
3. Ben Buist also had a cracking game starting at his preferred position of 2. He was strong all around the park, at the breakdown, in defence and was assured at lineout time. The competition at hooker (with three players that can stake a strong claim to the 2 jersey) appears to be bringing the best out of our boys.
4. Jake Buist – at the start of the season we thought we had seen the last of this inspirational man in the black and white of Perth Bayswater, so it brings such a smile to my face to be writing about his first start back in Premier Grade, along with his brother Ben and Centurion Max Veech. Having missed a pre-season and over half the season Jake has slotted back in quickly and has looked sharper with each passing week. He was typically aggressive in defence and carry this week. Welcome home Jake.

With that we head to the bye and a well-earned rest for some weary bodies and will look to pick things up again in two weeks’ time against Joondalup at home.

Baysie Hard!!