The Westport Club–sponsored Port Macquarie Pirates had a mixed bag of results last weekend when the Pirates hosted the strong Coffs Harbour rugby teams.
The First Grade team, reeling from injuries, put up a valiant effort, although going down to the strong Coffs Harbour 26 to 14.
The Pirates met a Coffs Harbour team that played strongly for the entire game, which did not give many opportunities to the Pirates.
The Coffs defence thwarted many of the Pirates’ attacking moves, with tries only to Joel Rabbidge and Lucas Webb.
Playing strongly for the Pirates was Geoff Lee, who came within centimetres of adding to the Pirates’ try list but was held short of the try line.
Coffs Harbour skipped away from the Pirates, putting two tries on the board before the Pirates troubled the scorer.
Coffs Harbour went to the break with a 19-7 advantage, which proved hard to rein in for the Pirates.
The Pirates First XV travel to Coffs Harbour on Tuesday, June 12 for a night game to catch up on a previously deferred match and will most likely be without injured Chris Turnham (rib) and Jacob Law (ankle).
The Pirates will have to improve on last Saturday’s performance to match Coffs Harbour at home.
The Port Pirates Reserve Grade team had an exciting 15-all draw with Coffs Harbour. It was a nail biting game that could easily have gone either way, but ended up finely balanced. Best for the Pirates Reserves were Adam Cross, Christian Jorgensen, Lucas Wall and Dan Blackman.
The mighty Port Pirates U18s racked up their second big win of the season against their old rivals Coffs Harbour, 35-10. (34-10, 2 conversions and 6 tries) The forward pack played strongly.
Impressive efforts came from Dan Betz playing an impact role from the bench, Peter Coetzer being strong in both attack and defence, and the ever reliable Pirates front row giving its now trademark solid perfomance in scrum, lineout and breakdown. With a special mention to players: Gunter, Mooney, Blanchy and Treasure.
The Pirates backs were “in the zone” using ball possession to mount attack at each opportunity, more than returning the favour for all of the forwards’ hard work. The backline also defended its territory well. Wilst the line was pene-trated a couple of times, the threats were “snuffed” out effectively.
Credit must be given to Coffs for a hard, clean and well contested 80 minutes. Had Coffs been able to capitalise upon field position and phase play, the scoreline would have been very different.
Well done the Pirates, great to see the team come together right across the park.
