Black and Gold beat Waimea's Old Boys

CHARLOTTE RICHARDS

Collingwood had to work hard for their win against Waimea Old Boys in Saturday’s Division 2 clash.

Playing on the lush, long grass of their home paddock, the Black and Gold were cheered on by a large crowd.

For the first half-an-hour there was little to choose between the sides but it was Collingwood who came the nearest to scoring after 22 minutes when Liam Miller narrowly missed a difficult penalty kick. Ten minutes later, however, the impasse was broken when Ethan Harwood capitalised on a mistake by Waimea and scored the first try of the match. The subsequent kick from near the left-hand touchline drifted wide of the uprights but Collingwood banked five precious points.

Given the close nature of the match it was not surprising when, a few minutes before half-time, Waimea scored a try and conversion to move the score to 5-7.

The second half continued in the same vein as the two evenly-matched teams continued to battle it out. Although Waimea made several breaks down the line, forcing Collingwood’s forwards to work and tackle hard, it was the Black and Gold who opened the second-half scoring through Cameron McLellan’s try and Brad Goulsbro’s conversion which established 12-7 lead.

Towards the end of the match, the heavy ground seemed to take its toll with several players suffering cramp, and tiredness leading to a number of mistakes, but both sides were determined to keep playing quality rugby. With 73 minutes gone Collingwood clinched the match after they were awarded a penalty, this time in front of the posts, giving Goulsbro an easy kick for a further three points. Final score 15-7.

After the game Collingwood coach Graeme Miller praised Waimea for their efforts, saying they had “made us work hard” and acknowledged their strengths in lineouts where Collingwood usually dominate.