0
There’s more than just a top versus bottom of the table clash on display when competition leaders Nedlands meet struggling Perth-Bayswater at Pat O’Hara Reserve in Saturday’s RugbyWA club competition match of the round, sponsored by KWIK Crane and Transport Hire.
There’s a piece of Western Australian rugby history in the making as Perth-Bayswater celebrate one hundred years of Perth rugby with a long weekend of celebrations including a gala dinner event at Burswood on Sunday featuring Western Force captain Nathan Sharpe.
It isn’t a centenary strictly speaking -- uncertainty over early records and several gaps in early competition make it difficult to pinpoint an exact centennial year but after researching club records and historical reports, the club decided to name a nominal date as 2010 to celebrate One Hundred Years of Perth Rugby.
The original Perth Rugby club started in 1906 and despite a break in rugby in Western Australia between 1910 and 1928 and a four year gap during world war two, Perth-Bayswater is the descendant of that original club and the oldest continuous rugby club in WA.
History probably won’t weigh heavily on the minds of the players in Saturday’s game, although Perth-Bayswater coach Rex George enthuses that the importance of the occasion will lift his team to new heights.
“We want to play a part in the celebrations, and we’re really pushing for a win on Saturday,” George said.
“We don’t want to be over-awed but we’re soaking up the whole occasion and trying to do justice to it.
“When they get down here and see the support, I’m sure these guys will grow another leg. If they don’t, I’ll pull the boots on myself.”
At first glance the game looks like an awful mismatch. The goliath in the contest is Nedlands, who have their own proud history with 27 consecutive years as finalists in the WA club competition. Competition leaders with a well rounded team of powerful but mobile forwards and enterprising backs, the Royal Blues have suffered one narrow loss to premiers Cottesloe but are playing a polished, slick brand of rugby.
By contrast, Perth-Bayswater are doing it tough this year. Opting for a grow-your-own policy, the men in black have a young team drawn mainly from the club’s first class academy program that feeds on one of the largest and most successful junior organisations in the state.
But Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither are successful rugby teams. Performance troughs are nothing new to the Morley club, highs such as premiership wins in 1996 and 2007 separated by lean years in the bottom half of the competition. And in an ironic twist to their one hundred years of rugby celebration, the 2009 season has shaped up as the club’s worst in 25 years.
Losing a number of its best players over the off season through retirement, travel and defection, the team suffered further setbacks with injuries in the first weeks of the competition. That left a very young team, especially in the back line, that has struggled to find its feet and remains in the wooden spoon position without a win to its credit at the halfway mark of the 2010 season.
But that doesn’t tell the whole story. A string of tough games have brought the round to a close for Perth-Bayswater but the young team has risen to the occasion and played some solid rugby against the better clubs.
Perth-Bayswater came within an ace of beating third-placed Palmyra at Pat O’Hara Reserve three weeks ago and followed with a worthy effort against fifth-placed Kalamunda that was very close until a couple of late tries eased the Bulls clear. Another strong effort followed last week against fourth-placed Associates and again the men in black were right in the game until the later stages.
“Our guys are going out against some very good competition, they’re being tested every week and every week they’re stepping up,” George said.
“We’ve been leading in most of these games but let them slip away. We’ve talked about experience but you can’t coach experience.”
No matter how often Nedlands coach Tony Ball drills into his side that there can be no complacency in this game, psychologically it will be difficult for the Royal Blues to go into the match at peak urgency.
Perth-Bayswater aren’t content just being competitive against Nedlands either, worthy an achievement though that would be, they want a win against all odds.
“We’ve been close for the last four or five weeks,” George said.
“I’d like to have had a win under our belts leading into these guys. They’re the best team in the competition and they’ve shown that week in, week out.
“What we’re saying is that the occasion is there. If we step up to that occasion we have a very good chance.”
George knows that the team has a mountain to climb against Nedlands but he insists his team can just about pull it off.
“All the pressure’s on Neddies,” George said.
“We’re the bottom team, they’re the top, but we’ve got to put ourself in a position to be a threat and the occasion could bring us home.
“We really have to shut them down. We know they go wide, they retain the ball well, we have to stop them getting momentum.”
In other games, Wests-Subiaco host Kalamunda at Rosalie Park, Rockingham welcome Associates to Lark Hill, Cottesloe meet Palmyra in a vital game at Harvey Field and Wanneroo play University at Kingsway.
by Rick Boyd
http://rugbywa.com.au/news/article,58408.html
Reply With Quote
Supporter" starring the #SeaOfBlue
Originally Posted by Coach
