Tala Gray was outstanding for the Country Eagles in a 31-2 defeat of the Rams
Photo: karenwatsonphotography.com.au

by Brendan Bradford –

New South Wales Country Eagles made the most of wet conditions at Coogee Oval to record a 31-2 win over the Greater Sydney Rams in their opening NRC match on Saturday.

Second half tries to Matt Carraro, Andrew Kellaway, Will Miller and Kuki Ma’afu sealed the first up win as spectators and players alike learned rule adjustments can only change so much. In the end, it was a more traditional style of rugby rather than all-out attack that won the day.

“You’d love to play running rugby, but it just wasn’t the day for it,” said Country coach Darren Coleman.

“It was pretty much a disadvantage to have the ball in the first half and we made a few tactical adjustments in the second half and just worked in the kick-chase and pressure at the contest and we got some tries out of it. Everyone loves to watch free flowing rugby, but first and foremost you want to win and in these conditions it was kick high and chase hard.”

Disappointed Rams captain Jed Holloway agreed, saying the Eagles simply executed their game-plan better.

“We tried to throw it around a bit much today and didn’t get our kicks in the right areas and ended up paying for it,” he said.

Ben Matwijow and the Eagles forwards put in a mountain of work in the wet
Photo: karenwatsonphotography.com.au

“It was very slippery and hard to control the ball in the collisions and the Eagles just did it better than us today. We were fairly underdone coming into this and you could see that out there, we got a bit lost at times but we’ll get on top of that, it’s only week one and the conditions just didn’t suit our game-plan. It’s a hard loss, but we’ll just move onto next week.”

The Rams dominated the opening eight minutes and went close as the rain teemed down but couldn’t quite find the tryline despite Eagles back rower Tala Gray being sent to the bin.

Each side had its scoring opportunities but with dropped ball figuring as prominently as sweeping backline moves, it was a stop-start affair throughout the opening quarter.

A shrewd assessment of the situation saw Holloway opt for a two point penalty which fullback Ben Volavola converted before Country flyhalf Sam Windsor evened the ledger a couple of minutes later for the strange 2-2 scoreline.

“It was tactically challenging when you got penalties in the first half because you knew tries were hard to come by and you wondered if two points was worth taking,” said Coleman.

“Had the old scoring system been around, you’d have taken a lot more points than we did. You feel like you’re cheating the crowd when you take the two but when they took it I thought we could as well.”

The rule changes made for interesting tactical decisions, with each side willing to run the football, but traditional rugby convention dictating a kick to the corner was more prudent.

The Eagles got the message to put the ball in the air in the second half and a midfield bomb and brilliant chase was the catalyst for Matt Carraro’s opening five-pointer. Volavola took the kick on the edge of his 22 but was immediately hit and cleaned-out allowing Country a quick turnover and half a break for Kane Douglas. Dragged down with the line in sight, Douglas managed a great offload to Carraro and Windsor converted from out wide for a 10-2 lead.

Rams replacement halfback Vasa Falealifii was shown a yellow card with 22 minutes remaining and when Benn Robinson collapsed a brilliant Country rolling maul from the ensuing penalty, the men in orange and blue were down to 13.

Country wasted little time capitalising with Tala Gray finding space on the left to put his Waratahs Sevens teammate, Andrew Kellaway in for a try in the corner. Windsor’s cool sideline conversion took the score to 18-2 with 15 minutes on the clock.

Will Miller poured salt on the Rams’ wounds with a damaging run down the left for the Eagles’ third try and a 23-2 lead before Kuki Ma’afu scored a fourth on the same side for the final 31-2 score line.

NSW Country Eagles 31 (Matt Carraro, Andrew Kellaway, Will Miller, Kuki Ma’afu tries; Sam Windsor 3 cons, pen) defeated Greater Sydney Rams 2 (Ben Volavola pen)