This weekend we had three senior rugby teams in action again and it was back to “two out of three ain’t bad.” The Women’s team have shaken off their mid-season slump with a commanding win over the Jindabyne Miss Piggies at home, while the men’s teams both played at ANU North Oval – the Dirty Twos losing to the Uni-Norths Owls and the firsts coming away with a win.

Here’s a look back at the weekend.

Click on hyperlinks for score sheets, photos and further details. 

Women’s: After a forfeit from Royals last week and some losses prior to that, the Goulburn Women now have a run of three wins on the trot behind them (including the forfeit) following their comfortable 31-15 win over Jindabyne Miss Piggies. The club’s leading try-scorer for this season, Chloe Waddell, extended her lead with a personal double with Josephine O’Brien also picking up a brace. The game was only made possible by Ross Copland stepping in to referee the match… many thanks to him for helping out. Chloe Waddell picked up three best and fairest points and Josephine O’Brien was named Players’ Player. Further details and Pete Oliver’s report to follow. The women have next weekend off and will next be back on deck on July 15 at Poidevin Oval.

First grade: This was one of the most enjoyable games the firsts have put together this year, culminating in a 28-22 win over Uni-Norths Owls. The saying “the score see-sawed” was spot on for this match. The Owls scored, then Goulburn scored, the Owls scored again and we scored again, and so on. The most encouraging thing was that each time Uni-Norths asked the question, Goulburn answered.  Uni-Norths had a try on the board within the first two minutes but the lead changed hands throughout. Goulburn first took the lead 26 minutes into the game. It was short-lived as Uni-Norths opted for a penalty goal shot shortly afterwards in recognition of their respect for Goulburn’s defence and the difficulty they were having in cracking it. But Ben Todkill responded with a try just before half-time to give Goulburn the lead at the break. Both sides scored tries in the second-half but Goulburn’s four-tries-to-three, coupled with Mikael Webber’s four-from-four conversion attempts locked in the win.

It was a particularly pleasing win as the previous match against Uni-Norths was a loss for Goulburn. Not only did Goulburn reverse that outcome, they did it against a side supplemented by four higher grade players.  Like it or not, they will continue to face bolstered sides until the playoffs due to the withdrawal of Penrith from the immediately higher grade, and although that’s not ideal, it is ensuring quality hit-outs for the Reds for the remainder of the season.   Goulburn’s discipline and composure continues to improve and a real strength of the Goulburn side is the number of points of attack they contain, reflected in the try-scoring. One thing they could certainly work on is kicks for touch, with less than half successful on a very windy day, but against a very evenly matched opposition, this was a very valuable win. Mikael Webber picked up three best and fairest points and Eric Brown was named Players’ Player.

Second grade: Based on the first 23 minutes, this was going to be a tough match. Goulburn defended doggedly for almost all of that time, not even crossing into the scoring half until about 18 minutes in, and you had the feeling that, having survived that onslaught, if they could only start getting a little possession and got into Uni-Norths territory the match would turn around. But then Uni-Norths broke the line, and then again, and then again and so on, for their 41-0 win over Goulburn. That opening stanza chewed up a lot of Goulburn’s defensive juice and Uni-Norths ran in six tries in a 22 minute patch in the middle overlapping half-time. The final 25 was a much tougher proposition for Uni-Norths as Goulburn regained their composure, but despite roughly 25 minutes of competitiveness at either end, the only stat that matters was the 41-0 scoreboard. Fullback Matt Thompson earned three best and fairest points and he shared Players’ Player honours with Campbell Kruger.

• Men’s 1st grade: Goulburn 28 bt Uni-Norths 22
• Men’s 2nd grade: Uni-Norths 41 bt Goulburn 0
• Womens: Goulburn 31 bt Jindabyne 15

Around the Grounds:

ACT 1st Division 1st grade:

• Goulburn 28 bt Uni-Norths 22
• Gungahlin 75 bt Queanbeyan 12
• Royals 26 bt Wests 19
• Tuggeranong BYE

ACT 1st Division 2nd grade:

• Uni-Norths 41 bt Goulburn 0
• Royals 48 bt Wests 17
• Gungahlin 28 bt Queanbeyan 0 (forfeit)
• Tuggeranong BYE

ACT Women’s 10s:

• Goulburn 31 bt Jindabyne 15
• Hall 24 bt Royals 5
• Yass 15 bt Bungendore 14
• Uni-Norths v ADFA (not yet played)

Tables:

Check your stats

• 1st Grade stats
• 2nd grade stats
• Women’s stats
• Club stats

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