Ram Raid: Centre Henry Taefu attracts some attention from the Spirit defence

by Paul Cook –

They wanted a dry deck and on a sunny afternoon in Adelaide, the Greater Sydney Rams finally got their wish and used it to good effect, breaking through for their maiden win with a 44-34 defeat of Perth Spirit yesterday.

A fast start had them 10-0 up by the end of the first quarter before Spirit clicked into gear, three tries in a row taking them to a 21-10 half-time lead. Some harsh words in the sheds fired the Rams up for the second stanza and human ‘wrecking ball’, Taqele Naiyaravoro, soon helped himself to his second try of the match but it was the Perth based side that still held sway 26-15 with just over half an hour to play.

Cue Rams skipper Jed Holloway, the talismanic 21-year-old leading from the front to cross from long range once again and kick-start a 10 minute, four-try salvo from his side to take the game away from a shell-shocked Spirit and deliver the Rams that all important first win in the NRC.

Head coach Brian Melrose admitted the win was vital in terms of his side’s progress. “It is a relief,” he said. “Winning is always good as it allows the boys to find some confidence. I think in the first half we were in a position to score more points than we did, but then also leaked some points. So a stern halftime talking-to maybe helped our second half, and we certainly put some points together and put our play together in a better fashion,” he continued.

While pleased with the performance of many of his players on the day, Melrose was particularly impressed by the contribution of Naiyaravoro. “We did a little bit of work with Taqele this week at training,” he revealed. “He’d been a bit quiet in games, but we did a bit of work with him, and he’s a quality player as we saw today. He’s a big man, and he was able to inject himself at times and we got a lot of play out of that.”

Workrate: Rams & Waratahs hooker Hugh Roach (L) put in a terrific shift at the coalface

Spirit head honcho, Dave Wessels, was happy with his team’s efforts as a whole but conceded that they were guilty of switching off in the second half with the game in their control. “Our guys did particularly well in the first half,” he said. “We worked very hard for long periods of time there without the ball and when we did have it we played quite smart rugby.

“It was one of those game where I though we actually did a lot of good things but there was that period where we lost concentration and by the time we responded to that the game had gotten away from us a bit.”

Naiyaravoro announced his intentions from the off, making some early inroads as the Rams took the game to their opponents, execution in the red zone all that was preventing an entry on the scoreboard.

Benn Robinson thought he was over off a lineout drive only three minutes in but neither the ref nor his assistant could see a clear grounding, much to the annoyance of the Waratahs’ loosehead. That missed opportunity was compounded when the Rams countered at pace down the left flank in the 10th minute, before going through the hands across field only for the final pass to fall short of the quality required to guarantee a certain try for fullback Dane Chisholm.

Having dominated proceedings for the opening quarter without registering a score, the Rams brains trust opted for a shot at the posts from their next penalty opportunity and Ben Volavola duly obliged. It proved to be the confidence boost they needed as shortly after they went in for the opening try. A collapsed driving maul saw Mark Swanepoel feed Volavola and onto Henry Taufa who fed back inside for a rampaging Naiyaravoro to power through to the chalk.

Volavola added the extras and Spirit’s 10-0 deficit was only worsened by a yellow card to lock Kieran Stringer for repeat infringements. However, the dual setback only served to fire Spirit’s resolve and after camping inside the Rams’ 22 for the next 10 minutes, they got their reward. A barrage of pick and drives left the Rams’ defence stuck on their heels on their goal line and the eventual score from prop Alec Hepburn was a question of when, not if.

Just after the half hour, a well placed grubber in behind and an effective kick-chase earned the Spirit a 5 metre scrum as they returned to full strength with Stringer’s reintroduction. They didn’t waste it as they went coast-to-coast off the back of it, probing for a gap and a pop pass from scrumhalf Ian Prior eventually found one for his halves partner Zack Holmes to crash through.

Catch Me If You Can: Rams lock Dylan Sigg shows a clean pair of heels

Having dominated the Vikings in the opening quarter the week before for a 10-0 lead, only to trail 16-10 by the break, it was starting to look like a bad case of déjà vu for the Rams as the half drew to a close. Only this time, it would get worse.

The passes were really starting to stick for Spirit now as confidence coursed through their veins but they were being helped by a few too many missed tackles and a major drop in intensity at the collisions from the Rams. With two minutes left of the half, another Spirit attack stretched their opponents and when they went two passes off the ruck, fullback Dillyn Leyds was on hand to slice through for his fourth try of the campaign and give his side a 21-10 advantage to take to the sheds.

A scrappy start to the second half from both sides came alive three minutes in, when a quick tap from a scrum penalty allowed Volavola to use a decoy runner and put Naiyaravoro through to the line for his second. The comeback was short lived however, Perth responding with some impressive ball retention and having working their way into the red zone, replacement Harry Scoble was too strong to hold out and Spirit’s 11pt buffer was re-established.

Spirit continued to ask questions, fizzing the pill from flank to flank and finding holes from which only a handling error or a lack of support runners prevented an addition to the scoreline. But cometh the hour, cometh the man and Rams young skipper, Jed Holloway, stepped up once again to come up with a vital play that turned the tide in favour of his side.

Spirit centre Ammon Matuato looks for an offload

Soaring highest at a lineout on halfway to preserve Rams possession, he tracked the play as it swept across field before injecting himself again at the pivotal moment to take Volavola’s pop pass, slice through a gaping hole and show his searing pace to run home in the opposite corner. One can only hope Michael Cheika is being sent the footage.

The try brought with it a momentum shift, the Rams starting to believe, Spirit perhaps feeling they’d already thrown their best shots, and as the game ticked over the hour mark, the Sydneysiders retook the lead for the first time since the 32nd minute.

There’s no substitute for size and speed and in Naiyaravoro, the Rams, and indeed the Waratahs, are blessed with a rare physical specimen indeed. When Dane Chisholm fired a long pass wide, ‘Big T’, all 6ft 5ins and 120kgs of him, made short work of Brad Lacey’s attempts to stop him, a one handed put-down in the corner earning him his hat-trick. The sky is – quite literally – the limit for the 22-year-old.

Two more tries within the next five minutes effectively ended the contest in the Rams’ favour. Another sweeping crossfield move ended with replacement Lalakai Foketi putting up a nice ‘don’t argue’ and releasing speedster Jarome McKenzie away down the right flank for the first, before Dane Chisholm was left with an easy put down for the second after another Holloway surge had created an overlap. Three conversions from Volavola added another 9pts and with just over 15 minutes to go, the Rams were in the box seat.

Perth should have got one back in the 72nd minute, centre Ammon Matuauto spilling the ball in the process of scoring thanks to a last ditch tackle from Volavola. But the Western Australians did get on the board once more before the final whistle, replacement Va’a Mailei going over for what proved to be a mere consolation.

They are far from the finished article but the Rams wagons are finally rolling…

People+Culture Strategies Greater Sydney Rams 44 (Taqele Naiyaravoro 3, Jed Holloway, Jarome McKenzie, Dane Chisholm tries; Ben Volavola 4 cons, pen) defeated Perth Spirit 34 (Alec Hepburn, Zack Holmes, Dillyn Leyds, Harry Scoble, Va’a Mailei tries; Ian Prior 3 cons)