Canberra league teams play in interstate trial day

Local Canberra rugby league teams Woden Valley Rams and Boomanulla Raiders competed over the weekend in a three-team trial day which also included the Gundagai Tigers.

Boomanulla played Woden Valley’s reserve grade side while the Rams also had match-ups against Gundagai’s under eighteen and first grade teams. These games gave each of the teams a chance to test combinations and rotations in the lead up to the upcoming 2015 season.

They also provided a rare opportunity for the three teams, who all play in different competitions, to play against each other. Woden Valley showed their strength in the under eighteen’s early on in the day, with scoring one-way traffic in their favour for much of the game.

With a number of quality players having now graduated to grade football from last year’s team, the Rams showed they still have a strong team to compete in the Canberra Raiders Cup this year.

Coming off a loss in their trial against Helensburgh a week prior, Woden’s first grade side were looking to show some improvement. However, the Tigers responded aggressively to their defeat in the under eighteen’s fixture, dominating much of the match.

Gundagai made the most of errors made by the Rams, with the scoreline blowing out before Woden managed to get some points on the board. Boomanulla played the Rams reserve grade side in the final matchup of the day in what was the most evenly contested affair of the afternoon.

Tempers flared late in the game when a brawl erupted causing a stoppage in play. However the game calmed with the Rams finishing strongly and taking out the match.

However Boomanulla, who compete in the George Tooke Shield certainly impressed on the day taking on a team from the arguably tougher Canberra Raiders cup competition.

Rams reserve grade prop Jake Gaynor said after the match he thought his team played well in patches, particularly in the later stages, yet still has improvement in them.

“It was a pretty tough game, they came out really strong at the start. It took us a while to settle in but once we did things started to work for us a bit better,” he said.

The trials were the last games before the start of the season for both the Raiders and Tigers, while the Rams will play further trials in Bungendore this coming Friday.