Before this critical game, in Melbourne Cricket Ground, Wagga Badgers coach Theo Kamis remarked to the BBC's Ray French that, "From here on out, we can't win unless we keep our mistakes to the absolute minimum - everyone left can clean our clocks if we don't be careful..."
So the lineup for this ASRL Division Two playoff third round tie, involving the two sides who have one game's grace, should they lose this one, was as follows:
East Coast Tigers Wagga Badgers
1 Chris Hicks 1 David Simmons
2 Chris Walker 2 Ruben May
3 Sid Domic 3 Mirco Bergamasco
4 Shane Rodney 4 Sam Speedy
5 Gareth Raynor 5 James Rowles
6 Matthew Bowen © 6 Tobias Jones
7 Andrew Dunemann 7 Jamie Rooney
8 Steele Retchless 8 Rachid Hechiche
9 Nathan Wood 9 Smeds Stahl
10 Chris Joynt 10 Daniel Lemu
11 Brad Thorn 11 Fabian Devichi ©
12 Danny Galea 12 Jon Wilkin
13 Dallas Johnson 13 Sam Payne
++Interchange
14 Tony Martin 14 Stefano Saghini
15 Tonie Carroll 15 Demiti Pelovski
16 Rudi Vedelago 16 Sean L'Estrange
17 Mark Gerrard 17 Mixie Lui
The opening six for Badgers wound up short, as they were penalised for a dangerous fend, giving Tigers good position in the Wagga end. It took a couple of minutes of back and forth, but a nifty inside toss to Danny Galea, a ten metre dash, and presto! Tigers had a 6-0 lead.
The Badgers weren't doing well against the Tigers' defence, as knock-on after knock-on added up. But for the next ten or so minutes after the Galea try, the Tigers' attack was just as smothered by the Badgers' defence. Then, the Tigers made two horrible penalties, with the Badgers stuck inside their own 10 metre line on the fifth tackle, allowing Wagga a chance to even the scores. Unfortunately, the Badgers were four metres short, giving Tigers the ball.
Wagga then gave East Coast half the field back, thanks to an inexcusable head-high tackle. The resulting set saw Gareth Raynor take a toss from Nathan Wood, winded after a thirty metre dash through the Badgers' defence, and land the Tigers' second try. 12-0, East Coast, after the conversion, and Wagga was on the ropes...
...but, with fifteen minutes left in the half, totally against the run of play, Mirco Bergamasco rumbled some fifty metres through the Tigers' defence, then offloaded the ball to returning halfback Jamie Rooney, who sliced through to land a try. The James Rowles conversion halved the Badgers' deficit to six.
Once again, both sides were content to try to wear the other down, and things got a bit sloppy on both ends. But it was Jamie Rooney who scored next, his dissection of the Tigers' defence, with the Rowles conversion, levelling the scores at the half, 12-12.
Neither coach was happy with their sides' performance - but I could sense that the weight of worry was far heavier on the Wagga sideline than the East Coast one. Tigers were favoured by eight in this game - not due to any lack of desire or will in the Wagga side, but rather due to the fact that Tigers had a better top XVII than Wagga did. "Hold on, lads - just forty more to go..." Kamis implored his side.
A knock-on by Tigers, four minutes into the second half, deep in their end, set up a golden opportunity for Badgers, and David Simmons did not miss his opportunity, landing for the Badgers' third try, with the Rowles conversion putting Wagga ahead for the first time all game, 18-12.
But ten minutes later, a combination of Gareth Raynor and poor tackling gifted East Coast the equalising try and conversion, Raynor landing to make the scores level at 18. Five minutes later, Chris Walker fought his way in for a try past a very busy Wagga defence - the missed conversion still left the Tigers ahead 22-18.
For the next seven minutes, the Badgers tried all they could to equalise, and perhaps were panicking a little bit. Tigers took advantage with twelve minutes to go, as Chris Walker caught a nifty kick into the in-goal and landed the try to put the Tigers ahead 28-18. The Badgers' coach would have liked to call a five minute interval at this point, as he saw his side losing control, panicking, trying too hard. But, he had to watch as two consecutive penalties set up East Coast for a knockout blow three minutes later, Chris Hick's dash setting up Tony Martin for a try that put Wagga down 34-18.
There was no way back for the Badgers this day, and the next sequence made things even worse. Sid Domic was forced into touch, but Tigers won the scrum against the feed. Then they took advantage of a questionable offside call to set up a Domic try, which left the final score at 38-18.
The stats told the tale - East Coast dominated the possession, and forced Wagga into a far lower completion percentage than they usually achieve. "They just wore us down, and we had nothing left," Kamis commented after the game. "We have a lot to work on this week, because that last thirty minutes was totally unacceptable. But, when I saw Raynor come out, I knew we had a rough ride coming...."
With Tassie Devils looming for Wagga next, and Fairfield or Newcastle waiting for East Coast, the semifinals should be very interesting, indeed...
*** FULL TIME ***
East Coast Tigers 38 Wagga Badgers 18
Stats:
------
East Coast Tigers
Tries -
Chris Walker x 2
Sid Domic
Gareth Raynor x 2
Danny Galea
Tony Martin
Goals -
Chris Walker 5 ( 7 )
Wagga Badgers
Tries -
David Simmons
Jamie Rooney x 2
Goals -
James Rowles 3 ( 3 )
Player of the Match Awards
3 points : Chris Walker
2 points : Dallas Johnson
1 point : Smeds Stahl
Penalty Count
East Coast Tigers- 9 : 7 -Wagga Badgers
Possession (%)
East Coast Tigers- 55 : 44 -Wagga Badgers
Time in Opposition Half
East Coast Tigers- 45 : 35 -Wagga Badgers
Handling Errors
East Coast Tigers- 15 : 23 -Wagga Badgers
Completion Rate (%)
East Coast Tigers- 68 : 49 -Wagga Badgers
Tackles
East Coast Tigers- 187 : 235 -Wagga Badgers
Thanks for tackling this, Theo. An interesting report, and best of luck in your semi final.
$30,000
