THE Hastings Valley Vikings handed out a rugby lesson, to the tune of 53-17, over the Kempsey Cannonballs at Oxley Oval on Saturday.
A good crowd was on hand to enjoy a festival atmosphere as the club hosted its annual Sponsors and Ladies day.
In the main fixture, the Coastline Vikings First XV settled well from the kick-off, with organised attack and a solid platform at the breakdown providing a good territorial advantage.
Kempsey also began strongly, basing their start on energetic forward play, although several early unforced errors prevented the Cannonballs from creating any sustained pressure in the opening 10 minutes.
The Vikings opened the scoring when fly-half Paul Chaplin drifted across field to put Greg Lawrence through a gap, linking with centre partner Lee Riske to cross under the posts.
Within a few minutes a similar play saw Riske crash through the defensive line and this time it was Lawrence in support to score the try.
Andrew Barnes made no mistakes with the conversions and added a penalty goal to see the Vikings skip out to a handy 17-0 lead.
Repeated team infringements saw the Vikings have the first of two players sent to the sin bin and the Cannonballs’ improved ball-handling allowed them to string some good phase play together, eventually being rewarded with a classy try to winger Matt Carter to get them back into the match.
The Cannonballs’ enthusiasm level lifted a notch, however the Vikings’ defensive effort matched up, restricting Kempsey’s go-forward.
The Vikings capitalised on the succession of turnovers at the breakdown to post additional tries to David Barnes and David Keys to see the side go to half-time with a 27-7 lead, but not before a second Hastings Valley player was given an additional 10-minute break for further team infringements.
Both outfits returned from the interval displaying enterprising play and traded try for try.
Lawrence proved too dangerous all day and was rewarded with a double.
With the Cannonballs backline struggling to make any headway, a reliance on rollicking forward running payed off with lock Kale Waters barging over on the fringe of the ruck.
The Vikings immediately struck back with Nick Ward brushing off several defenders to cross the line.
Waters repeated his effort but the game had slipped away from the Cannonballs.
Hastings Valley rounded out the match with a second try to Riske and Chris Whyte, and Barnes contributing with six goals; delivering a punishing 53-17 victory.
A pleased Vikings coach Brendan Cummins provided a range of comments about the encounter.
“Kempsey is one of those teams that just keep coming at you all game and they can be tough to match up on,” he said.
“It was a funny sort of a match though.
“We got absolutely belted in the penalty count, yet we dominated play and territory for pretty much the entire game.
“I can’t put my finger on it, but the lads did well in staying composed and getting on with their job.
“I think the three Kempsey tries certainly came from great moments of play, but essentially our defensive effort was great.
“The forwards did a good job in laying a platform, and with Chappo (Chaplin) back to his best this week, he linked really well with (Lee) Riske and Chop (Lawrence).
“It was great to see a centre pairing both have outstanding games.
“We were certainly looking for a good win and we didn’t really try anything new; more a case of playing classic rugby as well as we could.”
The result was a different story in the under 19’s fixture, with the Cannonballs showing why they are premiership favourites, handing out a 45-0 drubbing.
Mentor Al Tonkin was both frank in his assessment, yet offered a number of positives.
“We had the run of play for the first 15 minutes, and seemed to be constantly pressuring the Kempsey try line,” he said.
“Our ball retention at the breakdown was a big improvement on previous weeks.
“We were able to create opportunities but just not finish them off.
“It really all came apart when some great build up play and a tryscoring opportunity turned into a spilt ball and a 95m runaway try to Kempsey.
“I think for us to have some many chances and to see that happen was a real mental blow and the guys just could get back into the game from that point.
“We started sliding of tackles and making silly mistakes.
“For the guys to get back into the form they were at the start of the season, they really need to lift the effort at training, rather than thinking they can just turn up on Saturday and expect it to just click.
“The talent and skill is there, but the team work has just drifted away.”
In other matches, Coffs Breakers kept the Port Macquarie Pirates A team scoreless 31-0, Coffs Crushers hammered the Bowraville Goannas 90-3 and the Pirates B side forfeited to South West Rocks.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff
Twitter