South Coast Bulls get a scare in Cup opener

REPRESENTATIVE RUGBY LEAGUE

The VB South Coast Rugby League representative team have come back from a 16 point deficit with 22 minutes remaining to score a thrilling 24-20 win over Group 16 in Saturday’s opening Toyota Centenary Trophy clash at Batemans Bay.

After the Bulls missed a great chance early, possession and field position led to Group 16 taking the lead when Merimbula winger Dion Bedford crossed in the corner for a 4-0 lead and in the 19th minute Sean Jenkins was forced form the field with a knee injury, to put a big dent in the home side’s chances.

But undeterred, the South Coast team produced their first try to level the scores when Dean Gray and Gary Breakspear combined for replacement Josh Champion to cross out wide. Replacement kicker Michael Salafia missed the conversion and the scores were tied at 4-4.

Group 16s completion rate was far better than South Coast and they managed to score two late first half tries, one to replacement Jake Bowles and the second off a bomb right on halftime to Ben Cogan and at 16-4 the Group 16 side had plenty of reasons to feel confident.

Dion Apps, one of his side’s best all day, crashed over in the cornerand Greg Badulavitch’s conversion gave his side what looked like being a match-winning 20-4 lead.

In the 58th minute another charge from captain Jade Lucas and a great offload saw fullback Michael Salafia score under the posts and convert and eight minutes later a touch of luck went South Coast’s way when Salafia’s grubber kick rebounded off a defender and Jason White won the race to the ball to score and close the gap to 20-14.

In the 75th minute with Butfield crashing over and Salafia coverted and with momentum on their side the Bulls were hoping to finish the game quickly in extra time and that’s exactly what they did, with Geoff Johnson slipping through the defence from 45 metres out and his reverse pass to White seeing the rampaging break two tackles and race over to seal at important but unconvincing win.