After a game to forget last week, the Yass Ewes ran onto Victoria Park on Saturday determined to chalk up another win for the season. 

The home side started strongly and two tries in the first half had the Mudchicks on the back foot early. 

 

The Bungendore ladies managed to regather their composure after the break with two quick converted tries giving them the lead. The Ewes struck back late in the game to take the lead and seal a well-deserved 15-14 victory. 

Anna Slavin, Lia Gaspari and Rebekah Gallagher were the three try scorers for Yass on Saturday which helped propel them to the win. 

Ewes Coach Nathan Cooke was pleased that his side could overcome the momentum shift in the game to find victory at the death. 

“It was a really well fought out game between both sides on the weekend. We came out really well in the first half and were leading 10-0 at half-time,” Cooke said. 

“In the second half, Bungendore were lucky to sort of bounce back, they put a couple of converted tries on us and were down 14-10 for the majority of the second half. 

“The girls then rallied and lifted again. We spent the last sort of five minutes attacking Bungendore’s line and put repeated phases together and were lucky enough to break over the line. I’m pretty sure it was after the timer ran out too, so we played an extra minute or two longer than we needed to to secure the try. 

“That put us one point in front to win 15-14. It was quite an exciting finish.”

The win on Saturday was pivotal for the Ewes as they bounced back from a couple of heavy losses in a row to the Uni-Norths Owls and Jindabyne Miss Piggies.

 

“Uni-Norths are sitting on top of the ladder, so they were always going to be a tough team to beat at their home ground over in Canberra last weekend. We only turned up with eight girls as well, which made it even harder for us. There’s a lot more room on the field when you’re only playing with eight players,” Cooke continued.

“The girls are always very positive. They do enjoy their football, it doesn’t matter whether we’re winning or losing, we obviously prefer winning, but they don’t get too upset with losses here and there. They bounced back well this week.”

 

The win means the Ewes sit seventh on the ladder out of eight teams, with finals football looking a big stretch to make it from here. 

 

“It will be tough to make the finals from here. We’ve got a couple of very competitive games coming up against ADFA after our week off. Then we’ve got Canberra Royals, who are below us on the ladder and ADFA are in the second half of the ladder as well.

“Then we finish off the season against Goulburn who are sitting in second at the top of the table. It’ll be a tough way to finish the season, but the next two should be pretty competitive for us.”

The Rams weren’t as fortunate on the weekend at Victoria Park, going down to the Jindabyne Bushpigs 43-5.

The undefeated Jindabyne Bushpigs were always going to be a big challenge for the Rams and from the opening minutes they showed why no team has come close to beating them this season. 

The Bushpigs played at a pace that is a cut above anyone else in the competition and while the Rams defended well, they were unable to hold off the relentless pressure that continued for the full 80 minutes.

While the score wasn’t flattering, the home team can hold their heads high. They refused to give up and there will certainly be a few sore bodies in Jindabyne this week. 

Plucky half-back Jacob Beissner was the only Yass player to crack the Bushpigs’ defence and scored the team’s lone five pointer. 

“I did watch the Rams game, it was tough, as Jindy are sitting top of the ladder. They had some very well-structured plays, they ran it from side to side and kept catching us out wide a lot of the time,” Cooke said.

“The boys stuck in and played their game plan and had some good patches of play, but it’s just about making sure that they can play a full 80 minutes.” 

 

This weekend, the Rams will have a well-earned rest, while the Ewes travel to Dowsett Fields for a 1:30pm kick-off to take on the ladies from the Australian Defence Force Academy. 

Tim Warren