PINDAN PREMIER GRADE PREVIEW: ROUND 16

Pindan Premier Grade Match of the Round - Nedlands (2) v Cottesloe (4) at The Foreshore, Nedlands.
Round Seven: Nedlands 22 defeated Cottesloe 13 at Harvey Field, Cottesloe.

Nedlands will be keen to get back to their winning ways when they take on fellow top-four side Cottesloe at The Foreshore in the Pindan Premier Grade Match of the Round.

Nedlands let top spot and the RugbyWA Cup slip through their hands when they suffered a shock defeat at hands of UWA last round. ‘Neddies’ were seemingly in control at half-time with a 12-point lead but a scoreless second half from the then ladder leaders cost them dearly, going down 20-19. Luke Doherty’s men will need rebound quickly in order to take winning form in the final weeks for the season.

Cottesloe will also need to regroup ahead of this weekend’s showdown with Nedlands after suffering a 16-point loss to Wests Scarborough, 46-30. Cottesloe ran in four tries in the loss but will need to sure up their defence against the most powerful attacking unit in the competition if they want to hand ‘Neddies’ back-to-back defeats.

Nedlands: Not Supplied.
Cottesloe: 1. John Monk, 2. Urbain Lawrence, 3. Kaisa Reidy, 4. Damien Carley, 5. Kieran Stringer, 6. Dylan Pearce7. Angus Duckett, 8. Adrian Hall, 9. Charl Nieuwenhuis, 10. Antini Brown, 11. Ivan Wright, 12. Sean Martin, 13. Sam Parker, 14. Nili Afeaki, 15. Kevin Smith

Joondalup (8) v UWA (7) at HBF Arena Sportsplex, Joondalup.
Round Seven: Joondalup 22 defeated UWA 16 at McGillivray Oval, Mount Claremont.

Joondalup will look to leap-frog seventh-placed UWA when they host the students at HBF Arena Sportsplex.

UWA pulled off one the upsets of the 2015 Pindan Premier Grade season last week when they knocked off Nedlands by a solitary point in the Belt-Up Match of the Round. The Students came from behind at half-time to snatch the Mike Denton Trophy and RugbyWA Cup, led by a man-of-the-match performance from Richard Hardwick and will be looking for more of the same when they tackle Joondalup.

Joondalup bounced back strongly last week with a 13-point win over Wanneroo after three consecutive defeats. Joondalup ran four tries against the Roodogs to notch up their fourth four-try bonus-point of the season. The Brothers will need to be at their attacking best this week against a UWA defence that held Nedlands to just 19-points last weekend.

Joondalup: Not Supplied.
UWA: 1. Nevin Mills 2. Ed Brook, 3. Jacob Gianoli, 4. Tim Carslaw, 5. Brent Murphy , 6. Tala Moli, 7. Jeremy Snith, 8. Richard Hardwick, 9. Ethan Carlisle, 10. Ryan de Franck, 11. Levon Kvas-Rothwell, 12. Grant Hardwick, 13. Ben Taylor, 14. Mike Lees. 15. Billy Hayes.

Wests Scarborough (1) v Associates (5) at Bennett Park, Doubleview.
Round Seven: Wests Scarborough 25 defeated Associates 19 at Allen Park, Swanbourne.

Wests Scarborough will be keen to lock down top spot and charge towards the minor premiership when they play host the Associates at Bennett Park.

Wests climbed back to the top of the ladder with a strong performance against Cottesloe as they ran the game out to claim a 16-point victory, 46-30. With Nedlands just one point behind thanks to a superior number of bonus-points the Boars can’t afford to drop any games in the last three matches of the regular season. AJ Alatimu was at his best again last week scoring 26 of his side’s 46 points and the competition’s leading scorer (177 points) will be keen to add to his tally this weekend.

Associates currently sit just three points behind fourth-place Cottesloe and with ‘Cott’ facing the might of Nedlands this week the Swanbourne club could climb back into the top four with an upset win over Wests. Soaks will be keen to make up for tight loss to Kalamunda last week, the men in gold fought hard but could finish the job, going down 26-21.

Wests Scarborough: 1. Mike Tamihana, 2. Conan Houkamau, 3. Dylan Crawford, 4. Matt Obrien, 5. Hayden Anderson, 6. Sean Flatman, 7. Kieth Andrews, 8. Pierre Roberts, 9. Ryan Burge 10. AJ Alatimu 11. Jordan Luke, 12. Saula Fifita, 13. Sheldon Tarawa, 14. Cody Coe Baker, 15. Sheldon Tarawa.
Associates: 1. Ehipa Thompson, 2. Tabbie Du Plessis, 3. Andy Lawrence, 4. Lachlan Valentine, 5. Peter Trend, 6. Dean Taylor-Menzies , 7. Michael Hardwick, 8. Michael Polastri, 9. Justin Turner, 10. Matt Dreyer, 11. Ross Palframan, 12. Junior Sifa, 13. Casper Nell, 14. Tevita Sifa, 15. Robbie Ingram.

Kalamunda (3) v Palmyra (6) at Hartfield Park, Forrestfield.
Round Seven: Kalamunda 44 defeated Palmyra 24 at Tompkins Park, Alfred Cove.

Click here to watch the live stream of this match.

Kalamunda will look to tighten their stranglehold on third spot when they play host to sixth-placed Palmyra at Hartfield Park.

‘Kala’ got the job done again last week, with a five-point victory over Associates, 26-21. The Bulls continue to make their mark as one the best attacking forces in the competition, running in four tries to claim their 10th four-try bonus-point of the season. Leo Auva'a scored a brace in the win notching up his 11th try of the season and making him the competition’s third highest try scorer behind Nedlands’ Michael Ruru (12) and fellow Bull Apineru Faamanatu (18).

Palmyra’s finals aspirations hit a speed bump last week as they missed their chance to move into fifth place thanks to a shock defeat at the hands of bottom-placed Perth Bayswater. In a low scoring affair ‘Paly’ went down to ‘Baysie’ 13-11 and will need to regroup in hope of bouncing back against a threatening Kalamunda outfit.

Kalamunda: Not Supplied
Palmyra: 1. Joe Savage (c), 2. Michael Tui, 3. Hummer Tioke, 4. James Simpson, 5. Jarrod Menary, 6. Dylan Cunningham, 7. Dave Hull, 8. Hayden Croghan, 9. Brian Jurisich, 10. Sam Jurisich, 11. Panashe Kamhata, 12. Michael Fotu, 13. Vinnie Booiman, 14. Josh Tatupu, 15. Tutere Waenga.

Perth Bayswater (10) v Wanneroo (9) at Pat O'Hara Reserve, Morley.
Round Seven: Wanneroo 36 defeated Perth Bayswater 12 at Kingsway Reserve, Landsdale.

Perth Bayswater return home to Pat O’Hara Reserve with a win under their belt for the first time this season and will be keen to go back-to-back when they take on Wanneroo.

‘Baysie’ finally posted their first victory in 2015 after 14 rounds with a two-point win over Palmyra, 13-11. It’s no surprise that Perth Bayswater’s first win of the season came with their best defensive performance of the season so far, conceding just one try. ‘Baysie’ will be keen to carry that momentum into this weekend and give their loyal fans something to cheer about.

The Roodogs suffered a 13-point loss last round, going down to Joondalup 34-21 and will be keen atone for the result. Wanneroo ran in three tries but defence again proved an issue and will need to be on their toes this weekend when they clash with a confident Perth Bayswater outfit.

Perth Bayswater: 1. Neil Boland, 2. Chris Temple, 3. Adam Grant, 4. Brandon Olaw, 5. Jonathan Stanley, 6. Joel Winterburn, 7. Jake Buist, 8. Ngaruhe Jones, 9. Troy Mete, 10. Ollie Clements, 11. Reuben Haile, 12. Kolia Konelio, 13. Wade Bryant, 14. Zubyr Abrahams, 15. Wayne Thompson.
Wanneroo: 1. Owen Italiano, 2. Scott Cornell, 3. Andre Roux, 4. Alex Winter, 5. Bradley Campbell, 6. Mark Cornell, 7. Benjamin Stimson, 8. Nathan Iro (c), 9. Bryce Watkins, 10. Tani Puki, 11. Marcell Blackie, 12. Andrew King, 13. Cerri Cummings, 14. Michael Wilson, 15. Byron Hutchinson

Saturday, 25 July, 2015
Kick-off times:
First Grade: 3.30pm
Reserve Grade: 1.50pm
Under 19: 12.30pm

By Fraser Smith

Click here to see the Tries of the Week from Round 15 of the Pindan Premier Grade

Five tries to Dickie Hardwick up at Joondalup today. Anyone know what the record is for most tries by a forward in a local game?

WESTERN FORCE MEDIA RELEASE
Sunday, 26 July 2015

NEDLANDS GRIND OUT VICTORY OVER GULLS

Pindan Premier Grade – Round 16
Nedlands 29 defeated Cottesloe 26 at The Foreshore, Nedlands
UWA 41 defeated Joondalup 25 at HBF Arena, Joondalup
Kalamunda 37 defeated Palmyra 31 at Hartfield Park, Forrestfield
Perth Bayswater 20 defeated Wanneroo 12 at Pat O’Hara Reserve, Morley
Wests Scarborough 27 defeated Associates 21 at Bennett Park, Doubleview

Nedlands returned to their winning ways yesterday with a hard-fought 29-26 victory over Cottesloe at The Foreshore.

In a physical encounter, Nedlands overcame a strong Cottesloe fight-back and kept their heads in pivotal moments to run in four tries to two and escape with a three-point victory.

Nedlands Assistant Coach Tom Fearn said he was happy with the way his players stepped up when challenged by Cottesloe.

“Cott really took it up to us today; they are fighting for a finals sport and gave it everything they had,” he said. “We were able to withstand the onslaught and tough it out which was pleasing.

“At times we were our own worst enemy, turning the ball after just one or two phases, but the boys stuck to the systems and they found strength in our game plan, which got us over the line in the end.

“We’ve got a few boys injured and we are focused on getting those guys right for finals but the rest of the squad stepped up in their absence and did the job for us.

Nedlands put ‘Cott’ under the pump immediately as Neihana Christian darted down the right wing to open the scoring for the afternoon within the first ten minutes and take a 7-0 lead.

Determined to answer straight back the Gulls crossed for their first just minutes later courtesy of Sean Martin, who finished off a brilliant try after a tireless effort from the visitors forward pack. Charl Nieuwenhuis converted to level the scores.

The two sides then traded penalties after pressuring each other at the breakdown to keep the score locked at 10-10.

Spurred on by a vocal home crowd Nedlands crossed for their second as through the forwards with, Kauri Cudd converting to push ahead 17-10.

A penalty on the stroke of halftime gave the Gulls a chance to close the gap and Nieuwenhuis made no mistake, striking true to have the visitors right in the contest trailing 17-14 at the change of ends.

Cottesloe were first to score in the second half after Nieuwenhuis picked up from the base of the ruck, sold a dummy and drove blindside before putting Kieran Stringer over the line as the Gulls snatched the lead back. Nieuwenhuis converted to take a three-point lead 20-17.

With the contest heating up tempers began to flare with a player from each side spending ten minutes in the sin bin. Nieuwenhuis slotted the resulting penalty to extend the Gull’s lead to 23-17.

After failing to hold possession Nedlands finally strung the phases together allowing Jesse Toto to put on some footwork, break the line and run 20-metres before linking up with Dylan Loversidge who stormed in to dot down under the posts. Cudd converted to take a 24-23 lead.

With the game on a knife’s edge Nedlands conceded a penalty directly in front of the sticks as Nieuwenhuis helped himself to three more points to push the Gulls ahead 26-24.

Determined to fight to the end Nedlands charged down a Cottesloe kick, regained the ball and drove down the blind-side to score through the forwards in the corner for what would prove the match-winning try.

With time ticking down ill-discipline hurt the Gulls, conceding numerous penalties before a final infringement saw Toto boot the ball into touch and as ‘Neddies’ clinched a tight 29-26 victory.

In yesterday’s other results, UWA outmuscled Joondalup, 41-25; Perth Bayswater defeated Wanneroo, 20-12; Kalamunda proved too strong for Palmyra, winning 37-31; and Wests Scarborough triumphed over Associates, 27-21.