It has been a while since both of our senior men’s teams recorded victories against Castaway Wanderers while playing away from MacDonald Park, but we did it yesterday when our Premier Reserves notched a 31-19 win followed by our Prems ‘thumping’ of CW by a 20-19 margin.
In the early game, Bays struck with only 3 minutes gone when newly-minted Sean Stewart raced over for the first score of the game; the Henry Do convert put the Bays ahead 7-0. With a Castaway knock-on giving possession to JBAA, big Peter Yankee powered over for the second visitor tally…10-0. The home team seemed to be content to rely on size and power in the forwards while the Bays presented a somewhat balanced attack using forwards and backs together. At the 20 minute mark a CW winger was able to break away against the flow of play and sprint for a 70 metre tally to half the lead to 10-5. Moments later the red and black squad scored again to take a 12-10 lead. With 7 minutes left in the first half, Sean Stewart is unsuccessful in his attempt to put a clearing kick through the stomach of an onrushing CW chap, resulting in a blocked kick and 3rd score for the home team and a 19-10 lead. Just before half, Ryan Boothroyd got the ball in his hands and used his size and brute strength to bowl his way in for the 3rd Bays score, cutting the CW lead to 19-17.
The second half saw only 2 scores, both coming from the Bays. The first was Peter Yankee’s second of the day when he strolled into the end zone from a line-out to make it a 24-19 game after Kai the Kid added the easy convert, A heads-up penalty tap by Valentin the Mad Frenchman brought the final score to 31-19 for JBAA as the second half wound down. The young visitors played with commitment and enthusiasm throughout with the Issah, Mitch and Brad having particularly strong games in new positions. ( As you can tell I am still learning the names of many new guys).
In the Premier Division game JBAA jumped into a 3-0 lead just moments into the match when a CW transgression allowed Thomas Burton to drain a penalty from 38 m out. The home team responded quickly, scoring a nice try off a driving maul to go up 5-3. Two foolish penalties resulted in Castaway Wanderers receiving two yellow cards during this half. Despite this potential advantage James Bay did not exploit it fully until the 35 minute mark when a sweet passing movement from Crosby Stewart to Mitch Sora to Craig Two-Names allowed the young fullback to race into the end zone for an 8-5 Bays lead. The second half ended with a nice try from a CW second row player supporting his backs to enable the home squad to regain the lead at 12-8 at the half.
The second half produced only 3 scores…one from CW and 2 from The Bays. At the 15 minute mark a nice break by Mitch and an off-load to Crosby allowed the pacey #9 to score between the posts. The easy Burton convert gave the Bays a 15-12 lead. The visitors increased their lead when Jake Slobodian was sprung loose by a Joe-Montana-style pass from Andrew McPherson, fattening the lead to 20-12 for the Navy Blue. Although CW scored near the end of the game due to a Bay defensive boo-boo, the final whistle punctuated the 20-19 JBAA win! The chant of “Slaughter, slaughter" echoed out from the sidelines!
Pip, pip. Cheerio mates.
Images are courtesy Dave Nicholson and John Richardson. Check out more photos from John on his facebook page.