It’s been weeks coming and Bowral Blacks second grade side finally celebrated its first victory of 2018.
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At home against Kiama on Saturday, Bowral put in an impressive performance to win 70-12.
Welcoming a few players back from injury a strong start set the Blacks up well.
First grade assistant coach Greg Mumm said it was good to see the team get a win after a few close losses in recent weeks.
“They had a really good start which gave them the confidence they’ve been struggling to find,” he said.
“They started a lot better as a whole 15 and played well as a team.”
Mumm said the outside backs’ kick return which put pressure on Kiama was also one of the key reasons behind the team’s success.
Matthew Gleeson crossed the try line three times in Bowral’s win over the weekend.
On the other side of the coin, it was a disappointing result for third grade, with its unbeaten streak coming to an end.
The Blacks faced Wollondilly White Waratahs and went down by a single point (20-19).
It was the first time the team had been put under any real pressure, Mumm said, and it took them a while to get into the game.
Bowral scored 14 points in the final 10 minutes but the points came too late.
Man of the match Robert Alves scored the home side’s final try under the posts.
“They’ll learn from that, Mumm said.
First grade also enjoyed a dominant victory at home, winning 55-14.
But Mumm said it was far from a complete performance.
“Early on we were still guilty of doing something well and then slackening off and letting the opposition back in,” he said.
“We did that for the first 60 minutes.”
While Bowral lacked focus in parts of the match, Mumm said it was positive to see the side finish strongly in the final 20 minutes.
Tyler Jones and Christian Alexander both scored two tries each in Bowral’s win while Lachlan Huntington had a good day with the boot, kicking plenty of conversions and penalties.
It will be a tough weekend ahead for the Blacks on the road as they face Shoalhaven.
Mumm said Shoalhaven had scored plenty of tries through their backline in first grade and defence out wide would be a “strong focus” for the Blacks at training this week.”
And it won’t be any easier for the other two grades.
“Across the three teams we need to get consistency in our own set piece execution,” Mumm said.
“That’s where all three teams have let the opposition off recently.”
He said the Blacks had been too inconsistent in its first couple of phases off set pieces and needed to “tighten” it up, particularly off scrums and lineouts ahead of this weekend’s matches.