OBU 57 – Paramata-Plimmerton 12
The expert commentary team this week was John ‘JC’ Cable, ‘Chook’ Henderson and yours truly Pete McFarlane.
Players we noticed this week
- James Poloniati – strong running busy all day
- Matt Sleith – converted to hooker but unless you knew you would think he’d always played there.
- Olly Polson – Looks threatening when running it back, safe pair of hands on defence and a useful clearing kick.
- Sam Reid – you can’t go past 3 tries. He had plenty of work to do so he earned them.
- Matt Fowler – a workhorse behind the pack. Plenty of cover and backing up done too.
- Josh Gimblett – tireless worker in the loose, always pressurising the opposition ball carrier.
How the game unfolded
- OBU played with a moderate tailwind in the first half and conditions remained similar for the rest of the game.
- The match hadn’t even kicked off and Shamus had to change his jersey due to getting ripped. Too much gym work? He played in the number 3 jersey as did Luke Chisholm. The referee seemed to cope pretty well but the opposition was deeply impressed by the workrate of number 3!
- 3 minutes – Ty Poe intercepted a pass, no-one was going to catch him and he dotted down. From the resulting kickoff Sam Godwin fields the ball with his scrumcap! I’m sure something will have been mentioned about that late into the evening.
- There was a long period where the teams were testing out each other. Paramata-Plimmerton had a couple of opportunities but their passes were just a bit forward.
- 17 minutes – Some great interpassing from the OBU backs eventually saw the ball with Sam Reid beating 4 tacklers down the southern end of the clubrooms side of the field to score in the corner. Great try!
- 26 minutes – There was a great move where # 15 Olly Polson cut through the line but the last pass was slightly forward. Paramata-Plimmerton turnover the ball at the resulting scrum due to a powerful shove by the OBU pack. Shamus picks it up off the back of the scrum and takes it on the open side to crash over in the tackle. Score 19-0.
- 34 minutes – Paramata-Plimmerton are camped on the OBU line at the north end of the field. There are repeated pick and goes which are defended well. There are also multiple penalties conceded. It eventually got too much and the No8 finally crashes over. The conversion drops short. Score 19-5
- 37 minutes – Pass across the backline to Sam Reid who outpaces the defence and brings it around under the posts to make the conversion easier. Score 26-5
- 39 minutes. Try to Nathan Blundell wearing the 14 jersey. It started from a deep kick from a penalty into the Paramata-Plimmerton 22. They did some good work to clear it from the maul which was in danger of OBU holding it up for the scrum feed. The pressure of retreat finally showed when they fumbled it just out in front of the sticks. OBU grabbed the ball and the attack shifted back and forth a couple o times before Nathan scrambled in down the righthand marina side touchline. Tricky conversion was taken from the reliable bot of Dale Sabbagh. Score 33-5.
Half Time: 33-5
OBU turned into a wind which hadn’t changed much.
- 41 minutes: Almost immediately OBU were in again. There was a break down the right hand side running to the north end goal line. The ball came back in to Sam Godwin playing in the 6 jersey. He linked up well with Matt Fowler who gave it his all to get to the line but got pulled down on the 22. James Poloniati got the ball from the tackle and fed it on to Dale who had the numbers to just commit a defender leaving Taine a simple run in to get the try as reward for running good support lines. Score: 38-5
- 45 minutes – OBU throw a long high pass which gets picked off by the right wing who runs away to score. Conversion is successful. Score 38-12
- 46 minutes – Tiaki Fabish comes on for his premier debut along with Kyle Preston. Taking a well earned rest are Shamus and Matt Fowler.
- 47 minutes – Fui comes on for Luke Chisholm who has taken a head knock and is rightly removed from the field for his own safety. He carried the ball and went into an awkward tackle and copped a knee or something along the way.
- At the same time Caleb Delaney comes on for Taine Plumtree who looks to be cramping up and Matt Sleith comes on to hooker in place of Kenan Gilson. Matt hasn’t played hooker for a number of years but should be well protected in the scrums by the giants of Morgan and Fui!
- James P drops back to no 8 at least for the next few scrums.
- 52 minutes – there is a cross kick from a penalty and a mid air collision. Nathan falls awkwardly and suffers a similar fate to Luke. Adam Clarke comes on to replace Nathan.
- 60 minutes OBU execute a lineout drive very well. It is pulled down just short but Matt Sleith has it at the back of the maul in the classic hooker position and manages to split off the back and over to the left of the posts. Score 45-12
- 70 minutes – Paramata-Plimmerton have a decent period on attack. They execute a move where they created an extra man in the backline but dropped it once the hard work had been done. They’d be disappointed by that.
- 72 minutes – The ball is moved across from right to left and Ty takes the gap offered between tow forwards with James outside him not needed. Try! Score 52-12
- 75 minutes – Paramata-Plimmerton present Sam Reid an opportunity from a loose clearing kick. He runs it back in all the way for his third Final Score 57-12
Try scorers Sam Reid 3, Ty Poe 2, Nathan Blundell, Shamus Langton, Taine Plumtree and Matt Sleith all with one each. Dale Sabbagh the kicking machine 6 conversions.
All in all a solid performance from OBU over a Paramata-Plimmerton side that has been struggling so far in this competition. The good run of luck with injuries has ended unfortunately. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery for those in the casualty ward!