Palmyra v Cottesloe

A plucky Cottesloe took it to the wire against Palmyra before going down in the last minute of the game to lose 18 to 20.

Palmyra seconds thirds and fifths had handsome wins while colts and sixths went down against Cott and Uni respectively.

Being involved with the sixths at another venue I only got to see the second half of premier grade. Cott. lead 11 to 3 at half time and soon increased their lead to 18 to 3 with converted try. Though Cott did a lot of attacking for the next 15 minutes they were unable to breach the Palmyra line again due to some solid defence and finally Palmyra converted a penalty and then scored a converted try to bring the score up to 13/18 where it remained until the last two minutes of the game. Jerry Viriki finally took the bull by the horns and smashed his way through for a try in the last two minutes of the game to bring the score to 18 all. The conversion was made by Jason Burke and the referee blew his whistle shortly afterwards.

Without taking too much away from Cottesloe's determined efforts, Palmyra missed 6 of their frontline premier grade players but the good news is that they will be back next week and in addition Luke Doherty and Matt Hodgson will also be available for Palmyra against Nedlands . This promises to be the match of the round.

pally are lucky. seconds pulled one out of the ass's. and the firsts are lucky to scrap away with the win.

A bit early to reflect too much on next weekend's game against Nedlands, but Neddies win against Perth this week is an ominous sign.

Perth now have without doubt the most powerful scrum in the competition and with the amount of possession that generates on its own, let alone the turnover ball a big pack can achieve, makes them a very difficult proposition to beat. Nedlands ability to do so reflects on either the skill of the Neddies backs or the reliance of Perth on their now departed Japanese winger whose accuracy and prodigious kicks invariably placed them in a position to maximise their forward domination close to their opposition try line.

Whatever, next weekend there wiil be an X factor with the inclusion into club sides of some of their Western Force players, a rare occurance so far this season, and you can expect some unexpected results from that alone.

From the Palmyra perspective the extended loss of Andrew Turner at no.8 and the injury to Rick McKieth his replacement, can be covered by Luke Doherty. Similarly, Matt Hodgeson will compensate for Tommy Ratahai being sidelined with a leg injury.

The real weapons now available to Palmyra however will be the long awaited inclusion of winger Ratu Srganiyaui for his first home game and the return after several weeks of James Stannard at 5/8. Both these players have the ability to turn a game on their own, and the Pally backline is unlikely to be deprived of ball which Stannard can judiciously distribute to their best advantage.

That's not to say that Nedlands will not have a few surprises of their own, and a lot will also depend on their injury list after their briusing encounter with Perth, and who is available of their Force and Academy players.While Perth are a solid squad, they have more than their share of biffo and cheap shot merchants, and it is unlikely that Nedlands would have escaped unscathed any more than Pally did the week before.

And this brings me to another new element creeping into the competition,the control being exercised by the Force Academy over the players they have recruited from the local clubs. It remains to be seen whether this will ultimately be to the detriment of the clubs who sourced the players in the first place or otherwise.

I also see an insidious but self preserving concept creeping into club thinking generally, and actively being implemented by a couple of clubs already (not Palmyra) (yet).That is a policy of limiting costly recruiting to sources in New Zealand and UK because those players can't be incorporated into the Academy or the ARC (and can freely play in Australia), thereby ensuring they remain available to the clubs. By this means the clubs remain insulated from the sometimes ruthless actions of RugbyWA.

This of course is contrary to the interests of the Force, RugbyWA and the ARC, who if not relying on, certainly benefit from imports from other states who are eligible for inclusion at these higher levels.

Perhaps it is time the powers that be realised the clubs will not just meekly cop what is dished up to them, but will find a way around these hurdles.A more sensible approach on their part may be to give the clubs adequate financial compensation for the players taken from them, and to adjust their calendar so as to effect some compromise between competing interests.

Good win Pally...did Todd Feather turn up for Cott last weekend? He spent a season in Singapore last year and made quite a big difference during his stay there. He contributed massively to the Singapore Barbarians first ever win over the Hong Kong National Team (Ranked 30th in the world and 3rd in Asia).
Good luck for the game against Neddies, as always...it's gonna be a CRACKER!

Paly v Neddies is next week's game of the round. Should be a ripper. Neddies looked very good in their round one loss to Wests and have been unbeaten since, although they were lucky to grab a last gasp, match-winning try over Perth-Bayswater last week. We have yet to see the best of Paly this season, but they have been unlucky with injuries and will be hard to beat with their best team on the paddock.