COFFS Harbour Snappers have continued their undefeated start to the season with a hard-fought wet weather win against the Grafton Redmen, in their first home game of the year at Coffs Rugby Park.
The Snappers won their third straight game to start the season prevailing 29-15 against a spirited Redmen side, as they remain the only undefeated side in the Mid North Coast Rugby Union Northern Division competition.
The Redmen had the better early running with the game played predominantly in their attacking half, with the Snappers having to do a lot of early defending.
The visitors were rewarded with the opening try of the match to take a 5-0 lead after 10 minutes.
The Snappers started to turn the tide and opened their scoring after pouncing on a loose ball in the in-goal, to lock the scores at 5-5 after 20 minutes.
The wet weather conditions lent itself to unavoidable brutality, as the Snappers defended like their lives depended on it in the face of an inspired Grafton side.
A careless penalty gifted the visitors an 8-5 lead, before the Snappers hit straight back with a sweeping move out wide to take a 10-8 lead after half an hour.
The Redmen responded with a try of their own to take a 15-10 lead into half-time, in a back-and-forth arm wrestle of a first half as both teams struggled to gain the momentum.
The Snappers struck first in the second half, with Shunsei Okazaki crossing the line and converting to give his side a 17-15 lead seven minutes in.
The Snappers defence was wearing the Redmen down, forcing mistakes and helping them to win the crucial territory battle with quality metres hard to come by in the wet.
A great long range try from Daniele Yaya chasing down his own kicks ahead gave the Snappers some breathing space at 24-15 with seven minutes to go, before Fredrick Ralulu crossed for the sealer.
Snappers coach Mitch Walton gave his thoughts on the gritty win against a tough Grafton side.
“The conditions made it pretty even for everyone, and we went away from our blueprint of what we were trying to do a few times, but credit to Grafton they really showed up today wanting to fight for it and made us work all the way up to the 80th minute, it was a really good clash,” he said.
“We just tried to limit their offloads, obviously they have a pretty big Fijian contingent and they are quite good at the offloading game and it showed as they got a roll on at times.
“There were times there where we were our own worst enemies and gave away too many penalties and let them roll down the field.
“We hung in the arm wrestle pretty well, they put a lot of pressure on us, we hung tough, just defensively we have to fix a few things up, but not a bad win in the wet really.
“And I thought our number 10 Jonah Colburn really controlled the game, he kicked really well which helped to win the territory battle.”
The Snappers now travel to take on the Port Macquarie Pirates this weekend.
By Aiden BURGESS
