Recap

Right royal lesson for Dirty Twos

By CHRIS GORDON

A committed Royals side proved too good for Goulburn when they beat the Dirty Twos by 15-12 at Poidevin Oval on Saturday.

While Goulburn’s trajectory has been one of continuous improvement this year, against a superior and well-drilled foe much of that flew out the window.

There was no shortage of gutsy performances across the paddock from the Goulburn side which was cobbled together in the absence of so many injured players, but those absences and the adjustments for new players and adjusted roles made any sort of combinations difficult.

Goulburn had the best of the territorial advantage in the first 20 minutes but that didn’t translate into points on the board and Royals added their first try against the run of play.

Frequently Goulburn players would hit the Royals line without support only to see their hard work undone with Royals arriving in numbers and dominating the breakdown.

Despite that, 34 minutes into the match Goulburn only trailed by 12-0 and were well and truly still in the match but, as has often happened this year, their opponents scored another try bang on half time and Royals were ahead 19-0 or three tries to nil.

Goulburn’s attempt to buy back into the game suffered an instant setback when Royals added their fourth try two minutes into the second half.

Fill-in fullback Alec Palmer crossed for Goulburn’s sole try a few minutes later, but from then on the scoring returned to one way traffic for Royals who added three more tries for a total of seven and a 41-5 final score.

The second-grade side this season has contained many new players to the club and quite a few in their first year of senior rugby. They have had a solid season with a bunch of wins and close losses to their credit, and will be an even more formidable outfit for their experience. This loss has sadly ended their run towards the finals for this season however the team still has one final match to play next week against Queanbeyan Whites in Queanbeyan next weekend.

Best and fairest players for Goulburn were Connor Minehan (3), Josh Metz (2), Jayde Coggan (1) and Josh Hannan (1), while Minehan was also named Players’ Player.

Tuggeranong 41 bt Goulburn 5 (Alec Palmer try)

Photos: Chris Gordon