WOODBRIDGE CUP
MANILDRA Rhinos and Cargo Blue Heelers advanced to fight it out for the Woodbridge Cup premiership with wins over Molong and Canowindra respectively on Sunday at Grenfell.
Manildra fought out a dogged encounter with the Bulls to win 8-6, while Cargo produced a big second-half display to win 44-18 over a tenacious Tigers side in front of a boisterous crowd that paid $3500 through the gate.
Manildra and Molong started the day off and immediately tore into it with some big hits early on and a dust up after only two minutes. Both sides showed signs of nerves early on with a lot of dropped ball. Play see-sawed from end to end in the first half, with both sides missing good opportunities.
With the score nil-all at half-time it was thought whoever could hold the ball the better would go on in the second half and win the game. In the 45th minute Molong captain-coach Toby Weekes was sin-binned, which saw Manildra open the scoring with fullback Thompson getting a good inside pass to Josh Gersbach, who made it 4-0.
Shortly after Manildra also went down a man when Thompson was sin-binned.
Both sides attacked and defended stoutly until Molong finally crossed for a good try to Jason Dennis, and with Andrew Drady’s conversion Molong were in front 6-4 with 15 minutes left on the clock. With both players back from the bin, Manildra began to throw the ball around, enabling Dwayne Flemming to skirt the touch line in a good run to score out wide, putting the Rhinos back in the lead 8-6 with 11 minutes to go.
Molong staged a late charge on the Rhinos line and looked to have scored under the posts to win the game, but the try was disallowed, leaving the final score at 8-6.
The next game saw Cargo grab a 6-0 lead after a good backline movement gave John Rose a try. Play then became bogged down, Cargo making silly mistakes and giving away silly penalties, keeping the Tigers in the game.
The Tigers tested Cargo in defence and were rewarded with two quick tries to Shaun Craven and Mick Swan and a Rob Bun conversion to lead 10-6 after 30 minutes. The Tigers were looking good over Cargo, who looked like a side in need of a run. Cargo continued to give away penalties which saw a Burn penalty goal send the sides to the break with Canowindra leading 12-10 after big Glen Taylor scored for Cargo right on half-time.
Just five minutes into the second half Cargo hit the front through Stan Tulevu to make it 16-12.
The Heelers started to gain momentum and play their natural free-flowing game, running in two more tries to Ash Brown and Steve Newman to extend the score to 26-12.
Canowindra hit back in the 60th minute with a try to halfback Damien Kennedy and a Burn goal to reduce the deficit to eight. The Tigers kept plugging along but Cargo turned up the pace again with three late tries in the last 10 minutes to Brian Dunkley, Tim Shepard and Paul Mackenzie, which were all converted by Mat Watson, the Heelers running out convincing 44-18 winners after being made to fight all the way by the Tigers on the day.
Another big day for Woodbridge Cup, which now sets up grand final on Sunday at West Cowra Recreation Ground when Cargo and Manildra will do battle for Woodbridge Cup honours, while Molong will play Canowindra for the Garry Tiernan Memorial Shield to start the day off at 12pm.
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