ROUND 14 RESULTS Saturday 25 July saw Wests host Perth Bayswater in all Grades at Rosalie Park in sunny conditions, with a cool breeze coming in from the south west. 1st Grade: 1st Grade played Perth who had a number of young players in their squad similar to Wests. Wests went out to a 5-0 lead due to a good try scored in the corner by Dan Corsbie. Wests then fought and scrapped for every bit of possession and Nathan Huntley kicked 2 penalties for Wests to lead 11-0. Wests lost Dan Corsbie due to the Perth Number 11 lifting him up above the horizontal and dropping him on his head, however Ref. John Hill only saw fit to give him a yellow card, when 95% of supporters in the ground would have seen red cards given for a lot less in other games. The number 11 should consider himself a lucky boy as RugbyWA couldn’t provide video recording on the day so very little can be done about it on the follow up. I find it rather ironic that a player can get a red card for swearing at a Ref., yet someone can drop a player on his head, causing the injured player to leave the field for the rest of the game and possibly be out for the next couple of games, and the offender get 10 minutes in the bin, it doesn’t add up. Perth came back and kicked a penalty and then the number 11 scored a converted try to make the score 11-10 to Wests. Wests scored again by Nathan Huntley and converted to lead 18 -11 at halftime. The 2nd half was again an arm wrestle, however Perth scored and converted to bring it back to Wests 18 Perth 17 with 15 or so minutes to go. With about 8 minutes left Nathan Huntley scored his second try of the day, however the conversion hit the upright, so it was Wests 23 Perth 17. Perth pounded the Wests line, however Wests held them out, the players putting their bodies on the line and after a nervous 3 or 4 minutes the final whistle went with Wests recording their 2nd win of the season and two in a row, 23-17. Player of the day was Nathan Huntley. It was good to see a large number of the ‘old Boys’ down at the Club again after our win last week and Gibbo knows we are on track with what we are trying to achieve. Congratulations to all our teams on Saturday, you all played well. 2nd Grade: 2nds played Perth down on Field 1 and in a game of sea sawing fortunes held Perth close for the first half, however Perth broke away in the second half and Wests went down 12-23. Try scorers for Wests were Peter Powderly and Mitch Hyde, whilst Graig Barrett kicked a conversion. Player of the day was Simon Demergue. Under 20's: 20’s started the day on Field 1 and played a Perth side that contained a few of the Wests boys old school mates which added that little bit extra spice. Perth had only won 4 games so far this season but they were up for this game. The game see-sawed through to half time with each side matching each other with converted tries and at halftime it was 14-14. Perth scored first in the 2nd half and went out to a 21-14 lead. Wests then scored but couldn’t land the conversion, so with 10 minutes left it was Perth leading 21-19. With about 3 minutes left Coree Mahu received the ball on the right wing on the half way line and beat 3 or 4 defenders to run down the touchline and score just out from the posts, however Wests couldn’t convert and Wests took the lead 24-21. It was a nervous 2 minutes to the final whistle, but Wests held out to get 5 competition points. Other try scorers were Lorenzo DeVilliers (2), and Joe Fiso whilst Graham Cooper kicked 2 conversions. 20’s will need to lift another 4 or 5 notches if they wish to progress to the Grand Final. 3rd Grade: 3rds played up on Field 2 at the same time as 20’s, playing a Perth side that was just below them on the ladder. Perth scored and converted first, however Wests came back and scored two tries, one each to Claude Marchesani and Nathan McNamara, but Perth also kicked a penalty to make the final scoreline 10-10. Player of the day for Wests was Hamish McGuinnes. 4th Grade: 4ths followed on from 3rds taking on a Perth side that was 1 spot below them (in 3rd place) and 4 points behind them on the ladder. Wests started the game on fire and by halftime were leading 26-0 having secured their bonus point. The second half was a lot closer with the final score Wests 31 Perth 14. Try scorers were Dwayne Henderson, Bo Namnoo and Andrew Robertson (2) who was also player of the day and Wiriana Te Huia, whilst Brad Downey kicked 3 conversions.