Win sets Brothers for vital showdown
BROTHERS have prevailed 19- 14 against Ross River in the weekend’s closest game of Townsville and Districts Rugby Union.
The Brethren got their all- important tries through Emil Grant, Jacob Martinez and Aiden Pyper, and held off a late charge from the Redskins to grab another scrappy but tight win heading into this weekend’s blockbuster clash against Teachers West. Both teams went into the Round 15 game understrength, and Brothers fielded two A grade debutants in Kaleb Toigo and Eric Rodemacher.
Rodemacher had a dream start in A grade by winning player of the match honours after his impressive game at flanker.
The Spanish recruit, who moved to Townsville last year, had previously played rugby in England and the Netherlands.
“He was terrific on debut, and so was Kaleb,” Brothers coach Shane Laskey said.
“For them to play as well as they did was a big positive for us, but Ross River had more players out than we did.
“So it’s a bit disappointing to be honest that the game was as close as it was.
“Ross River were very physical as always ... they probably could have pushed it more.”
Brothers held the upper hand for much of Saturday’s encounter at Mike Carney Toyota Park, although a Redskins penalty try near full- time ensured a close scoreline and perhaps another warning to rival clubs that Ross River could be a finals’ dark horse
“It was a scrappy game – the obvious positive was that we won a close game,” Laskey said.
“But it will be a huge test next weekend against Teachers Wests.
Teachers again reaffirmed their top dog status by thumping Burdekin 50- 12 in Ayr on Friday night.
Alex McClymont got three tries, and the others came through Gene Morgan, Tom Vinson, Hugh Huppatz, Josh Lamb and Kris Nielsen.
Teachers, who had battled without their representative stars in the previous round’s win over Ross River, were close to full strength and will be certainly be the team to beat after outclassing the Canetoads, who went into the Friday night clash in good form after overpowering North Ward.
North Ward hit back from that loss, however, by beating Charters Towers 57- 12 at the Townsville Sports Reserve.
Jon Salee, Daniel Withers and Sam Bradley all scored braces for North Ward, and Connor Kennedy, Lachlan Cavallin and Russell West also got on the board.
The win puts North Ward one win ahead of Ross River on the TDRU ladder, with the Redskins and Old Boys jostling for fourth spot.