Recap

Goulburn Dirty Twos secure minor premiership in their final match before semis

By CHRIS GORDON

The Goulburn Dirty Twos continued their unbeaten run and secured the second grade minor premiership with a patchy but sufficient 38-26 win over the Hall Bushrangers at Hall.

There are three things you usually get when you play at Hall:

1 – A new-found appreciation for change rooms
2 – Front row seats to a punch up
3 – Uncontested scrums

Two out of three aint bad, the song says, and that’s what players and visitors had to settle for this time around as the Bushrangers unleashed a potent pack that dominated the scrum and regularly pushed Goulburn off the mark.

Typically a side with that sort of scrum dominance can expect to bank the winning points, but while the Reds pack struggled at the scrum, they accounted for themselves well across the paddock. Contacts were solid and unrelenting in a hard-fought hit out.

At half time the Bushrangers were very much in the match with Goulburn holding a narrow 26-21 lead.

In the second half, both sides tightened up their defence and slowed scoring to a trickle.

The Bushrangers had clearly done their homework on Goulburn’s slick backline and harried ball runners, working hard at nullifying breaks by key players. The chink in that strategy, however, is that the Dirty Twos backline is strong from 9-15 and no matter who gets targeted, any one of them can make something happen.

In a solid and often very willing second half, the Dirty Twos surrendered a swag of penalties but their defence held strong. Goulburn scored a further 12 points in the half while Hall was limited to just one try.

As the clock moved the result out of Hall’s reach, tempers flared and a Bushranger was shown a red card after a short stoush (that’s the punch up bit).

At the siren, the Dirty Twos finished with a 12 point winning margin, two points better than when the sides met earlier this year, but both sides left the game confident that they can come away with a win should the cards fall their way when they meet again.

Next weekend the Dirty Twos technically have a bye although a trial match is being lined up against Bowral.

Best and fairest players against Hall were Harry “the mullet” Newby (3), John “the Big Show” Rogers (2) and Jeff “I’ll just keep poking them” Caldwell (1). John Rogers was also named players player

Goulburn 38 (Hamish McCormack, Dave Quick, Izzy Tittor, Tyler Cornish, Harry Newby, Eric Brown tries, Jeff Caldwell 4 conversions) bt Hall 26.

Photos: CHRIS GORDON.

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