Pindan Premier Grade Preview: Preliminary Final

Pindan Premier Grade Preview: Preliminary Final

By RugbyWA Media Unit

Kick-off times:
First Grade: 3.30pm
Cottesloe v Wests Scarborough
Reserve Grade: 1.40pm
Cottesloe v Palmyra
Under 20s: 12pm
Cottesloe v Associates

Under 18s: 11am (Field 2)
Wanneroo v Mandurah
Third Grade 12.20pm (Field 2)
Palmyra v Kalamunda
Fourth Grade: 2pm (Field 2)
Wanneroo v Nedlands

Emirates Western Force layers playing this round:
Cottesloe: Junior Rasolea
Wests Scarborough: Pek Cowan, Jayden Hayward, Sam Wykes

Click here to watch the best tries from the Pindan Premier Grade Major/Minor Semi-Finals.

Preliminary Final: Cottesloe v Wests Scarborough at Kingsway Reserve, Landsdale
Round Eight: Cottesloe 19 defeated Wests Scarborough 3 at Bennett Park, Scarborough
Round 17: Wests Scarborough 26 defeated Cottesloe 25 at Harvey Field, Cottesloe

Preliminary finals are widely regarded as anxious affairs and, at times, as tough a proposition as the Grand Final itself, with teams often not just playing to win, but playing not to lose and miss out on a shot at the flag.

After having the safety net of a double chance following their 27-11 loss to Nedlands in the major semi-final last weekend, this week Cottesloe has been thrown into an all-or-nothing dogfight against a side that has been ‘in the ring’ for weeks.

Ever since a Round One 45-point thumping of UWA, the Gulls have appeared destined to be crowned the ‘Beau of the Ball’, however, this week they face a significant challenge just to secure a ticket to ‘the big dance’.

Meanwhile, Wests Scarborough’s nerves of steel have held once again, this time against a red-hot Palmyra as the newly-located side produced a nine-point win, despite two men spending time in the sin bin.

With only one loss in their past eight outings, the Scarborough men have timed their finals run well, and will storm into this week buoyed by the Round 17 win over Cottesloe at Harvey Field, where they overcame an early 12-0 deficit.

Flyhalf Teava Terangi is the Pindan Premier Grade’s leading point scorer this season with 156 points, including 12 points last weekend. However, the sharpshooter will also be expected to make a considerable contribution in defence this week, with Cottlesloe centres Tobias Hoskins and Ed Melville expected to direct plenty of traffic through the close channels.

Cottesloe coach Ian Fowler was quick to dismiss any additional pressure after claiming the minor premiership spoils and an expectation to contest the Grand Final.

“If you play good rugby and you stick to your shape, you should be successful,” he said.

“[However] we might be the underdogs now; we didn’t play that well last week, they’ve got a few Force players, and maybe people are thinking they should win.”

Fowler has embraced the addition of Emirates Western Force trio Pek Cowan, Sam Wykes and Jayden Hayward to the Wests Scarborough team.

“We’re excited that those guys are playing; Ollie Hoskins comes up against Pek Cowan, that’s great and he’s pumped,” he said.

“That’s the way we want to approach it, it’s good that they’re playing and we still think we can beat them.”

Meanwhile, Wests Scarborough coach Dwayne Grace has encouraged his side to keep riding the wave of momentum that has brought them to this point.

“We said to the boys to enjoy the occasion and that’s what we did last week,” he said.

“We’ve won a few in a row now so it’s a matter of keeping that rolling and just always wanting to play for each other.”

For weeks Grace has lauded his team’s ability to focus on their style of play rather than the opposition, and conveyed a similar message this week.

“We’re just going to play how we normally play,” he said. “They are the minor premiers so they will have a bit of pressure on them.”

“It’s undiscovered territory for us so we just aim to enjoy it and play to the occasion.”

Cottesloe have indicated just the one change with Mike Scott coming in to replace injured captain Jarrett Budworth, while Wests Scarborough is likely to be unchanged.

Cottesloe: 1 Kaisa Reidy, 2 Urbain Lawrence, 3 Ollie Hoskins, 4 Kieran Stringer, 5 Mike Scott, 6 Adrian Hall, 7 Mark Jackson, 8 Nick Haining, 9 Ryan Louwrens, 10 Sean Martin, 11 Matt Richards, 12 Tobias Hoskins, 13 Ed Melville, 14 Nate Howard, 15 Junior Rasolea


Wests Scarborough: 1 Junior Sala/Pek Cowan, 2 Conan Houkamau, 3 Kane Noora, 4 Riley Winter/Sam Wykes, 5 Josh Beer, 6 Brad Griffiths, 7 Kane Koteka, 8 Pierre Roberts, 9 Michael Marshal, 10 Teava TeRangi, 11 Sean Curd, 12 Marty Campbell, 13 Brad Lacey, 14 Brendan Anderson, 15 Jayden Hayward
Referee: Graham Cooper