Reserve Grade vs Snappers 30/4/22
Reggies travelled up the highway in good spirits knowing for the first time in many years a full bench would accompany them as a squad of 23 took the field.
But the Snappers must have read the memo and had a red army of their own to defend their turf.
Vikings looked strong in the opening minutes and although discipline was lacking conceding far too many penalties, the first try was bulldozed over by our big red number 8 Jono Tunks and we were up 5 nil… The arm wrestle started and it wasn’t until late in the first half our next try came to new recruit Jakob “Hainsy” Haines. The fullback bursting onto a kick return and going 60mts to score in the corner. Score 10 zero.
A late first half rare penalty to us resulted in 3 points and we went to the shed 13 nil up.
Second half was the start of our demise when penalty after penalty finally resulted in the “cheese” coming out, with no less than 3 of our men sitting for 10mins on the sideline.
The tide turned and points began to flow for the Snappers with 2 converted tries getting them ahead 14 to 13.. back in the arm wrestle we managed to gain possession and field position which led to another penalty 30 mtrs out in front where Hainsy stepped up and split the posts putting us ahead 16 to 14.
From the next kick off with minutes remaining we were camped in our own 22mts zone and couldn’t gain any field position, which led to an opportunistic intercept try to Snappers and with time against us we fell agonizingly short of a win 19 points to 16.
A good tough game to kick us off and all of our debutants stood up and put the Club on notice that some potential first graders are waiting to take their chance.
3 points went to our centre Jonty Smith who consistently bent the line in attack, and left a few bruises in defence.
2 points went to debutant Hainsy, who was a spark in our backline and looked dangerous with every touch.
1 point went to Jono Tunks, big red wrecking ball damaged the defence with strong carries and though his fitness was tested with big minutes he maintained his level of play the entire time.
Players player was Jonty Smith, with the highlight an enormous one on one front on tackle crunching his opponent which could be heard echoing off the Coffs mountains to the west. Unfortunately the ref saw it differently and resulted in a 10 minute rest and a box of beer for his team mates at training Thursday night.