will be hoping to see some unbiased match reports by those who attended
Well I watched the match with Geo today, now it's no secret Geo supports Wests, however I didn't care who won to be honest, there were players in both teams I was keen to watch and see how they went. So anyway…
Balmain got out of the blocks well early, Wests turned over early ball and Balmain made them pay. Mitch Brown scored the first try from a backline play starting just inside Balmain's half. Brown put on an excellent fend on Jarek Goebel (I think it was him). Left him flat on his back anyway as he showed a clean pair of heels down the sideline to score. Balmain's second try can be put down to George Keppa. Balmain were attacking Wests line when they put a grubber kick in towards the corner. Keppa did well to defuse it, but took his chances down the sideline and was promptly flung over it, as he was going over he had a brain melt and threw the ball back without looking...It was caught by Balmain and they scored the easiest of tries. Meaney converted both tries from the sideline.
Just as Geo predicted, the get square started off with the ref giving Wests a penaltt or two to get out of their own end. Andrew Fifita got the ball rolling for the Magpies as he was able to isolate a single defender, put his typical don't argue fend on him and surged 15 metres to score out wide for a good try. Corby converted. Wests started to pick up at this point and had good go forward. They levelled it up through the lock Sharkie who hit a good hole close to the Balmain line. Poor defensive read from the Tigers on this one. Both teams went to the sheds at 12-12.
Wests continued where they left off as Balmain resembled the Wests Tigers and looked flat at the start of the second half. Wests ran in two tries in a short space of time to lead 24-12\. Daniela got one which was an opportunists try off a good bounce while Rhys Pritchard did well to catch a cross field bomb and offload for I think it might have been Ben Falcone to score. Wests had a chance to go further in front a bit later as they took a penalty shot from 28 out, straight in front. The kick was one of the worst I have ever seen as it went about 2 metres off the ground and about 10 metres to the left of the posts.
This is where Balmain started their fightback, not through doing anything flash, but their dummyhalf running was effective and forced Wests back. They had some help from Wests as they started to cough the ball up, George Keppa had an unhappy day with his hands and Wests kicking game was terrible. Arana Taumata got Balmain back into it as he finally took the line on and went through with some good speed and footwork to score next to the posts from 10 out. Meaney converted. Taumata was at it again soon after as he finally put in a decent attacking kick after Wests rushed up on him and failed to bring him to ground, he got away a grubber towards Brown and Bennett and Bennett grounded the ball in the corner. Meaney's kick hit the upright to leave Balmain trailing 24-22 with a few minutes remaining.
Wests had some decent field position soon after but they just couldn't put Balmain away. With a couple of minutes left, Balmain were attacking Wests line and Blake Lazarus took the line on, got through an opening and did well to score out wide. Meaney missed the conversion. Wests looked out of options at this stage and Balmain were given a penalty as Arana Taumata was taken out late after kicking the ball. To be honest it was a nothing penalty. Anyway, Meaney converted to give Balmain a 28-24 win.
Now who impressed? For Balmain, David Gower was pretty good up the middle, he worked hard, Ryan Carr had a couple of good moments out of dummyhalf, Farlow also went well. Meaney was good and Lazarus and Taumata both had a couple of good moments although Taumata had plenty of ordinary moments...
Wests were best served by Andrew Fifita, Junior Moors and Andrew Pearn up front. Simon Dwyer was dangerous on the edges although didn't get as much ball in the second half. Pritchard was sharp out of dummyhalf and did some good things and Corby defended well in the middle. Nu Akeripa also had a couple of strong runs.
Who out of these sides could handle first grade and not embarrass themselves? Pritchard on the wing would go better than Fitzy IMO. He's quicker, gets out of dummyhalf well, was safe with his hands too. Brown is another option but apart from his opening try, he didn't get a whole lot of ball. He was better than Daniela though.
Simon Dwyer played the whole game and got the better of Mataka today. Dwyer was strong in the first half with some strong running out wide and several offloads, still needs some match fitness, but he looked pretty good. Lazarus did nothing special apart from his try at the death which was a good piece of individual play.
Taumata is not, I repeat, is not the answer at 7 for the WT. He came up with some clangers today. Some very poor passing and his kicking game was equally poor. He came up with one good kick at the end to give Bennett a try, otherwise his kicking game was ordinary. His running game is a different story as he is very good on his feet. Still looked short of a run though. I could see some utility value in bringing him off the bench as the opposition tires. He'd have to go in the centres or five eigth though. Lazarus was the best half on the field and he didn't stand out to be honest.
David Fifita is way off the pace of his brother. Being injured hasn't helped him, but he's clearly not as fit and doesn't hit the line like Andrew does. And Al Schirnack looked to get injured again unfortunately.
That's pretty much how I saw it today, both sides had their chances, Wests just seemed to tire a bit more than Balmain did late in the game.
