Recap

Dirty Reds book a spot in the Big Dance

By CHRIS GORDON

The undefeated Goulburn Dirty Reds are through to the ACT Monaro Cup first grade grand final after clinical back to back wins against RMC.

After a short season that only seemed long due to a protracted pre-season and a ten-round competition punctuated by byes and a rained-out weekend, the Reds beat RMC by 54-22 in what began as a carbon copy of the previous round.

As in their match last weekend, RMC were super competitive in the first twenty minutes but then a combination of Goulburn’s game coming together and RMC’s falling apart saw the Reds run in a series of tries.

“I think we take a little while to get into our groove and as we do they sort of drop off, but I think we started better this week,” first grade coach Mik Webber said.

That start had Goulburn ahead by 28-10 and four tries to two at the break.

Again, Goulburn’s scrum had a clear edge but RMC were competitive at the breakdown and the lineout.

But it wasn’t a complete copy of the previous week. The new-look RMC side, with seven changes to the team that presented a week before, didn’t turn up their toes as Goulburn started to pile on the points and continued to slug it out until the final whistle.

Each side more-or-less repeated their first half performance with four more tries to Goulburn and two more to RMC.

As with the previous week, Goulburn’s bench were all given much-needed game time that will be handy match practice for reserve grade who had a bye last weekend and were denied a semi-final match by Easts last-minute forfeit.

In the other semi-final, after initially trailing ADFA, a strong second half flourish by Hall booked them the other spot in the grand-final.

Coach Webber said he had no particular preference who Goulburn faced in the grand-final.

“Either way we’ve got to beat whoever’s in front of us,” he said.

“Hall have led us at different stages in both games this year. They’re a red-hot chance and we’ll have to put everything right at training over the next two weeks and on the day to beat them.”

Goulburn 54 (Mikael Webber 2, Jordan Lees 2, Jackson Reardon, Ben Todkill, Brad Clements, Adam Lachlan tries, Webber 2 conversions) bt RMC 22.

Photos: CHRIS GORDON.

[Show slideshow]

1 2 ... 4 ►