The Margaret River Gropers Rugby Club have booked themselves into the 2017 South West Rugby competition final with a hard fought 29-5 win over the Collie Mongrels over the weekend.
Despite their stellar run of wins throughout the season, the Gropers faced a strong opponent in the home side and had to dig deep to find the stamina to stay on top.
The Collie team are renowned for a huge forward pack that plays a bruising style of rugby, and the Gropers knew they would again be tested by a team determined to stifle the free flowing style of rugby enjoyed by their counterparts.
Playing under a torrential downpour, the Gropers soon realised their slick passing and up-tempo game style was not going to eventuate as they tackled the Collie home turf on Saturday.
Encouragingly, the Margaret River team showed great maturity in adapting to the conditions.
“You don’t have to play pretty, just be effective,” came the message from Gropers Captain Simon Earl, and the team found themselves in front 12 to 5 at the half time break.
The winter deluge continued and on a sodden pitch, the Gropers began to defy the difficult conditions to string together several periods of fierce running rugby that the Mongrels could not find an answer for.
It was enough for the visitors to score two more tries and douse the fires that had kept Collie within reach for much of the game.
Captain Simon Earl was awarded man of the match for a typically gutsy performance and high work rate, while teammates Max Hedstrom and Aaron Murgia handled the conditions better than most and were excellent in counter attack.
The Margaret River Gropers must use the remaining three games to fine tune their skills and set up their game plan as the South West Rugby competition tightens up in the run to the finals.
Rugby players of all skill levels are encouraged to join this highly social club for trainings on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:00pm on the Nippers Oval.
