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Half-time: Ballajura 10-5 Kingsway
Best on Ground: Hamish Thomson
People's Best on Ground: Ross Litterick
The Kingsway team were once again blessed with glorious weather for their 4th match of the season, against an almost unknown opponent in Ballajura Community College. Most of the team was available for selection apart from Ashley Page who had an injured hand, Marcus Christie whose post hike accident rehab was still in progress and a number of Year 12s who had to study for exams. The venue was the Perth-Bayswater RUFC or Morley Reserve, the scene of last week’s match against Lockridge SHS. The game kicked off more or less to schedule and Ballajura immediately applied some pressure on the Kingsway goal line. After a number of phases, the backs moved the ball wide and a try was scored in the right hand corner, the first of the game. A good conversion attempt from the sideline by their goal-kicker was pushed just wide. Kingsway responded almost immediately after the kickoff with some absolutely brilliant play from a number of players, especially Simon Cook who somehow managed to evade 3 or 4 tackles and stay in the field of play before grounding the ball in the left-hand corner. The referee couldn’t make up his mind whether it was a try or not and proceeded to ask the Year 4 girl touch-judge (!!) from Ballajura who seemed to agree the try had been scored. Byron Sparg missed the somewhat impossible conversion attempt and scores were level at 5-5. Some good running again from Simon Cook and a beautiful off-load to Brendan White on the left wing almost saw another try scored however Brendan’s amazing speed was not quite enough to get there and in the end he was ushered into touch. Ballajura managed to respond to the Kingsway pressure by first some good running by the backs and then a good off-load to their own version of Bobby Duncan who easily got through Michael Jacob, Tim Robertson and Hamish Thomson’s tackles so score a try near the left of the uprights. An ordinary conversion attempt by their kicker meant the score was 10-5. After such a shoddy piece of defending, someone in the team had to step up and it came in the form of Ross Litterick making a huge tackle on a player twice his size (yes, they do get that big!!;)!!) which left him a bit dazed and dazzled after the game. Despite some late opportunities to attack from a number of lineout steals, that’s how it stayed until the half-time break. In the second half the Ballajura team dominated the first few minutes. Firstly, a try on the right wing after a mixture of aimless kicking by Kingsway and good running from Ballajura. Their goal-kicker finally found his form and the conversion kick from out wide was slotted. At 17-5, Ballajura launched another counter attack and through a number of their forwards managed to allow their full-back over the line. However, instead of putting it down, he decided he wanted to bring it under the posts. As he did, some good follow up work from Adam Litterick forced him onto the dead ball line as we grounded the ball. The referee awarded the try but then decided after some protests from both Tim Robertson and Adam Litterick that it wasn’t a try breaking the fundamental rule “The referee cannot alter his decision.” However, he wasn’t done yet and after awarding a 22m dropout changed his mind yet again and came back to an infringement by the Kingsway team because “advantage hadn’t accrued.” How there could still be advantage after a player had run 15m and crossed the try-line and run another 5m will be a mystery for as long as we live. However, the referee still wasn’t done yet and after awarding the penalty, Ballajura turned down the offer for an easy three-pointer and worked their way to the goal line again from a quick tap. The ball was fumbled as a player went to ground on the goal line but the referee decided he was going to make his 3rd outrages decision in 30 seconds and award the try. A missed conversion attempt meant the scores were at 22-5 and Kingsway were in big trouble. After the restart however Kingsway found themselves deep inside Ballajura territory. Some good running by Hamish Thomson led to Wade Sparg diving over however some poor handling by Tim Robertson meant that the ball came back for a scrum to Ballajura. However, Wade Sparg still managed to get his first ever try for Kingsway, despite the ball appearing to be held up and Kingsway clawed their way back to 22-10 after a missed conversion attempt from brother Byron. After the kick-off, some fumbling in the Ballajura backline saw the ball being hacked off the ground by Byron Sparg and some good chasing and some dreadful handling from Ballajura saw Justin de Mello dive on the loose ball and bring Kingsway to within 7. However Byron again missed from out wide and Kingsway needed a converted try to draw level. However no more points could be scored by the Crusaders for the remainder of the game and Ballajura managed to pull a try back under the sticks after Kingsway lost 2 of their own lineouts. The conversion left the scores at 29-15. The referee decided to make one more shocking call, awarding another try to Ballajura just after the kick-off that clearly came from a forward pass. A successful conversion and the final whistle meant the scores stood at 36-15. Well Done to Ballajura on their win. Despite the appalling refereeing performance, in the end they deserved to win the game. Kingsway now have a week to regroup before playing Ocean Reef SHS at Kingsway Reserve.