Recap

Eagles too good for Twos in return from break

By CHRIS GORDON

Despite a dominant second half, the Goulburn Dirty Twos found themselves just a few points behind at full time in their 26-19 loss to Gungahlin Eagles at Poidevin Oval on Saturday.

After a number of weeks sidelined by byes and travel-phobic Canberra teams, the Dirty Twos were finally back on the paddock which is a kind of win in itself. Which is good, because the result was kind of a loss.

It was a familiar tale for the Twos… a strong second half, a strong finish, and a narrow loss.

The Dirty Twos have won about half of their games this year, and almost all of the lost ones have been close. They’ve recently been having a mid-season purple patch with a run of wins but, partly due to a long break in games, they were rusty in this match.

Gungahlin were up three tries to one at the break and although Goulburn’s defence had been pretty solid, their execution with ball in hand was short of the mark.

Coach Boyd Newby’s provided half-time direction for the side and Goulburn came back better for it in the second half. Cleaning up in just a few areas made a noticeable difference, and with two tries to one in the second half, they were just a converted try away from levelling scores at full time.

Since the last try scored for Gungahlin was by Dirty Red defector, Luke Shaw… if you move that try across from Gungahlin’s column to Goulburn’s, it’s a win to the Reds. Sadly the competition rules don’t see it that way, and it was a loss for the home team.

If the Dirty Twos can seize control and adapt to the game in front of them more quickly against any of those sides they lost to, no opponent they’ve faced is out of reach.

But saying it is easy. With one round of the home and away season remaining, it’s show time.

ACT Rugby sent no referee for the match and so one person from each side refereed a half each (Jackson Reardon, an experienced referee advisor did the job for Goulburn). Both teams were appreciative of how well they did the job.

Best and fairest points went to Michael Cooke (3), Rhys Elliott (2), Josh Metz (1) and Will Mooney (1) with two-try scorer Connor Minehan voted Players Player.

The tragedy of the match was the end of the winning streak for Mr Moneyball, Jacob Roberts. In 27 games with the club he had, until this game, never played in a losing side. But as he said philosophically after the game, all good things come to an end.

Going into this game Will Mooney also had an undefeated run… in his case of 15 games… and was also in the running for a future Mr Moneyball title. Now his Moneyball dreams have been shattered. The title of Mr Moneyball now goes to the next in line of succession to the Moneyball throne, Mitch Webb (19 undefeated games). Angela Albrighton (9 undefeated games) retains the title of Ms Moneyball.

Next weekend both Goulburn men’s teams are away against Easts.

Gungahlin 26 bt Goulburn 19 (Connor Minehan 2, Josh Metz tries, Hamish McCormack 2 conversions).

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