Blog

1st JUNE 2019

EASTERN SUBURBS ROOSTERS vs BURNIE EMUS

North Warrane was the venue for a huge day of rugby, with our Women kicking off proceedings, followed by our Men and the Division 1 match between Glenorchy and Devonport.

The Roosters were hell-bent on atoning for the first round defeat by Burnie, and having eight players unavailable made life worrying for Coach Jason. It wasn’t such a problem finally with Tye Hart and Brady Blooranta from Glenorchy joining us, and the much loved veteran Marc Whitfield pulling on the boots for another game.

The match got under way, with the Roosters numbering down to 14 players to match the Emus numbers. This time the Roosters succeeded in not giving away points in the first few minutes as has been the recent pattern. Unfortunately, only 4 minutes in, Brady received a yellow card, quite un- fairly in your correspondent’s opinion. But he doesn’t count.

The game proceeded fairly evenly, with some good attack and defence on both sides. Andrew Fossati was making some good hit-ups. Conrad Mitchell was following him around and with Gobbles and Brendan Elliott doing the clean-outs things were looking sweet.

Eventually, after 17 minutes, some good ball was sent wide, Tye made a nice run and put Jayson Turnbridge over wide out on the left. A lovely kick by Jake added the extras to take us to 7 – 0.

Next, it was Burnie’s turn. Our boys had hardly caught their breath before former State Captain Brett Bentley took off on a big run and with the Emus having the benefit of a series of penalties, they scored out wide. 7 – 5 wasn’t that comfortable now.

Then, 25 minutes in Brady made a huge run, but sadly lost the ball over the line. After a 5 metre scrum, the Easts boys pressed the line, and a good scrum and a couple of rucks later, Jake added another try and landed the conversion to take us to 14 – 5.

Another 7 minutes later, with Robbie Casboult running like a 20 year old, some beautiful ball through the hands and Brady made no mistake this time finishing off a great team try. Jake missed but at 19 – 5 the boys were looking comfortable.

In the 34th minute, disaster struck with Captain Jake coming off with a knee injury. Luckily, the Roosters had a ready-made replacement in Robbie who was able to be released from the front row with Burnie opting for un-contested scrums.

Right on half time, Chris Munns had a nice run, Robbie got the ball and with a magnificent 60 metre run went over to take us to the break at 24 – 5.

The second half began scrappily, which unfortunately was the tone for the second half. With 14 minutes gone, the Emus went over wide out and edged closer at 24 – 10.

Wiggy was on, and was quickly involved in everything. The Emus seemed to want to target him, bringing the ball back into the forwards and the big fella was having a ball picking them off. As the game wore on, the Roosters were on the wrong end of a shockingly high penalty count. But the boys persisted, and at the 24 minute mark, Burnie made a mistake in-goal. From a 5 metre scrum, the big fella Wiggy got a well-deserved meat pie in the corner next to his adoring fan club. No conversion, but 29 – 10 wasn’t too bad.

The game had descended into a “lets have a ruck so that we can give them a penalty” procession, and with 28 minutes gone, the Emus went over in the corner, and a nice kick added the extras. 42 minutes gone, and into injury time, another penalty to the Emus and a runaway try saw the Burnie boys creep closer. Too late though, the Roosters were home 29- 22.

The Roosters’ best players judged by independent people were:
3 votes Conrad Mitchell
2 votes Robbie Casboult
1 vote Brendan Elliott
King Rooster Marc Whitfield

By Les Marshall