Recap

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Goulburn downed in messy match

Last week when reserve grade was beaten 31- 26 by ADFA, rugby was the winner on the day. Both sides came off full of praise and respect for their opponents after the hard-fought, keenly contested battle. The players were happy. The people were happy.

This match wasn’t that.

It was ugly, it was niggly and it was tough to watch. And while it’s hard to say these words, I feel sorry for the ref.

The actual result, for what it’s worth, was 26-7 to Hall.

But let’s start with the positives. For the Dirty Twos – they dug deep for the entire game and were camped on the Hall try-line for a large part of the first half. And for the Bushrangers, despite having a few players in the bin, the Hall last line defence was virtually impenetrable. Even outnumbered they frantically kept Goulburn out phase after phase, until fly half Aidan Greaves burrowed his way through. Hall was the better side on the day and deserved the win.

Now for the negatives. High tackles and repeated infringements saw five yellow cards handed out to the Bushrangers, but it could have been a lot more. The infringements were often the bit that separated Goulburn from scoring and not. No yellow cards were handed out to Goulburn and that’s probably an accurate distinction between the two sides on the day.

Goulburn’s improvement was still evident and it was a credit to them that they didn’t get dragged into messier rugby and infringements.

Best and fairest for Goulburn were Conor Ferguson (3), Josh Hannan (2) and Logan Keightley (1), while Grant Mooney picked up the Player’s Player.

Hall 26 bt Goulburn 7 (Aidan Greaves try, Chris Boardman conversion).