The South-West Brahmans extended their winning streak to four in a row last Saturday when they out played the Tigers in every department of the game. The Brahmans raced in nine tries to three when they defeated arch rivals, The Bungendore Tigers 48 points to 14 at Binalong on Saturday.
Playing before a very vocal home crowd, both sides started the game with determination that set the pattern for the first half of the game, with big hit-ups by the forwards and penetrating runs from the backs. But with the speed of the game, one side had to crack and that side was to be Bungendore. Following surging runs by Joe Dyball and Shannon King the Brahmans moved the ball wide and Abed Atallah juggling the ball managed to find the gap and went in to score the first of his three tries.
The Tigers charged back into the game with some very clever back-line play and they kept the score at four all when they crossed wide out for the first of their three tries.
With the very fierce defence taking its toll, the Brahmans Captain-Coach Jason Pollard began putting in long raking kicks early in the tackle count to turn the Tigers big men around. This tactic had the desired effect, and when the Tigers scrambled to re-group they began to make some major handling errors. From one of these turn overs the Brahmans set off on a probing attack that resulted in Adam Byrne finding the try line in the corner.
The Brahmans were starting to take control of the game and “the man with the flair” James Blair was next to score with a strong burst from 10 metres out. With Abed Atallah finding the extras with his boot, the locals led 14-4. Bungendore replied in the best possible way when they hit straight back with a try of their own, to narrow the lead to four points. But with seven minutes remaining in the first half Adam Byrne again did what good wingers do best, he finished off a good attacking move and dived over in the corner to score his second try. When the siren sounded to end the first half the Brahmans went in to the sheds with the score in their favour, 18 points to 10.
When play resumed the Brahmans forwards led by Grahame Moorby and supported by the entire pack took complete control of the middle and the backs started to play some razzle-dazzle football moving the ball from one side of the field to the other. As a result of this type of play, Luke Oldfield opened the scoring in the second half and the score was now 24 points to 10.
The Brahmans continued to keep the pressure on the Tigers and when Shannon King forced another Tigers error on the sixth tackle, the Brahmans went on the rampage again which ended with another try, this time to Grahame Moorby.
Bungendore could see second spot on the table slipping away and they put in one big final effort. They scored again reducing the lead to 16 points. But frustration was creeping into their game and careless tackling was costing them too many penalties that gave the local side a lot of extra ball, and a lot of easy metres. This allowed the Brahmans to put on another 18 unanswered points as they romped away with the game, leaving the Tigers to lick their wounds.
Final score Brahmans 48 Bungendore 14. Try scorers Abed Atallah (3), Adam Byrne (2), Nathan Schofield (1), Luke Oldfield (1) James Blair (1) Grahame Moorby (1) and Abed Atallah 6 goals.
Awards: Players-player shared between Shannon King and Joe Dyball 3 points Grahame Moorby, 2 points Joe Dyball and 1 point Nathan Schofield.
Next Saturday the Brahmans play West Belconnen, at west Belconnen in both the under 18’ and seniors.