July 29, 2012
The South Burnett Thrashers dominated the scrums in a strong performance against the Toowoomba Bears in their Downs Rugby Union clash at TJ O’Neill Oval in Kingaroy on Saturday.
Although they were on the wrong side of the ledger at full-time, the Thrashers were by no means disgraced and put heavy pressure on their more-fancied opponents’ line on multiple occasions.
The Bears opened the scoring with a try to Brad Neill but South Burnett weren’t phased by the early setback and shortly afterwards went within inches of scoring, stopped by a Bears’ defender desperately ripping the ball away over the line.
This was followed in quick measure by a Thrasher threading the ball between defenders’ legs to plant it strongly over the line, only to be ruled “no try” by the referee for “walking on knees”.
After surviving the pressure, Toowoomba’s Will Bazley scored and Brad Neill converted.
South Burnett then opened their account with a try under the posts to Brandon Walsh, converted by Kirk Parker.
At half-time the score was 12-7.
The Bears opened the scoring in the second half with a try to Richard Hansen, converted by Brad Neill, after a series of rucks worked its way sideways along the Thrashers’ goal line.
Toowoomba and the South Burnett (Steve Harrington) then swapped tries again, taking the final score to 26-12.
Speaking after the game, Thrashers’ president Shane O’Malley said that while his team had dominated in the scrums – and the forwards had performed well – there had been too much dropped ball and too many turnovers in the rucks.
“But it was very promising, the Bears are a good side, and we can take a lot out of it,” he said.
