Fishies come out on top in heated local derby

(Brad Soper, Matt Naden, Bobby Gordon, Luke Jenkins, Nick Evans tries, Joe Williams 6 goals, field goal)

MACQUARIE RAIDERS 14

(Adam McDermott, Villiame Cagibula, Steve Ryan tries, Josh Merritt goal)

For CYMS and arch rivals Macquarie Raiders, the Group 11 derby was probably won and lost in the first eight minutes after the start and the last 10 minutes before half time.

The big crowd had hardly settled into the seats before Brad Soper and Matt Naden scored converted tries to give CYMS a 12-0 lead.

Then after Adam McDermott and Villiame scored to get the Raiders back to 12-10 down after 29 minutes, the green and white machine hit back immediately.

Again playmaker, half-back Joe Williams was the general. Always keen to sniff out an advantage, he took charge and did the lead-up work for Bobby Williams to finish off an attack down the right hand side with a great try. Williams kicked the conversion for 18-10.

Then on the back of a CYMS penalty for a high tackle on Nick Evans, Luke Jenkins scored under the posts for 24-10 - and Williams booted a field goal as the whistle sounded for a half-time lead of 25-10.

A Nick Evans try saw that advantage blow out to 31-10 while Moses Manu was in the sin bin and it was clear sailing all the way home. As would be expected injured CYMS captain-coach Blake Tremain-Cannon was impressed with the win.

“Winning high pressure games like this is always good but when you have a 12-2 penalty count against you, it is always going to be harder,” he said. “And of course to have one player (Luke Jenkins) sent off and two sin binned (Nick Wilson and Joe Williams) is not the desired situation for you to be in.

“But it was a tough game and I thought we battled against that fairly well.”

One of the features for CYMS was their discipline in defence in cutting off the Macquarie ball carriers in close. “We’ve worked on being tighter around the rucks and getting the markers set - and having defenders on either side. That was crucial for us,” he said.

“Another advantage for us tonight was that we had four forwards on the bench. We were able to rotate them fairly frequently and keep the pressure on.

“And we also noted that Macquarie didn’t do that, so we were fresher and more efficient out there which also gave us an edge.”

The Macquarie dressing room was fairly quiet after the game with lock Zac Rennick conceding it was the fastest game he had played in all season.

“Unfortunately we didn’t put two halves of football together,” he said.

“We were a bit flat and didn’t step up to the plate for this one. You know it’s always going to be tough, local derbies are like that.

“We shared a try each in the second half but all the damage was done in the first half.”

Rennick said his best were Steve Ryan at fullback, Moses Manu in the front row and hooker Perry Meredith. Ash Conn also put in a huge effort in defence but he lacked support.

There were strong performers all over the field in the CYMS outfit and they were the clear cut winners.

Forwards Chris Thompson, Simon Yeo, Josh Large and Brad Soper made some huge bursts up the middle of the rucks and there were any numbers of players in support. The Raiders were found wanting in this area big time.

Joe Williams directed play and called for the ball all night while his general kicking game was paramount and this gave his forwards lots of breathing space. Then of course having Williams kick six goals from as many attempts, plus a field goal for good measure, rounded off a man of the match performance .

Nick Evans in the centres was one of the best players on the field; winger Joe Tawake had a great game and fullback Charly Runciman was faultless.

Runciman’s try saving play at the expense of Steve Ryan was paramount. The Macquarie fullback was about the place the ball down for a great try until Runciman snapped the ball out of his grasp and four or maybe six points went begging for the Raiders.