USRN

Glendale 34 – NOLA Gold 33

The first half of this game was a tail of 2 halves. Glendale started out the better team with a blistering start scoring 2 unanswered tries and a penalty to make it 17-0 within the opening 15 minutes.
The Glendale backs were buzzing with scrum-half Shaun Davies pulling the strings and keeping the play ticking over.

After the water break NOLA Gold scored the first try on the 25th minute. This would be the first of 3 tries in under a ten minute period with their last try coming just before half time. Tim Maupin scoring a great solo try where he went straight through a gap in the Glendale defence to touch down and make the score 21-17 to NOLA Gold going into the dressing room for half time.

Second Half

Luke White came off the bench for the start of the second half and made an almost immediate impact. White is more often that not the spark that ignites the Glendale fire and this was also the case on the 45th minute. After a great initial break by out-half come center Robbie Petzer set up the ruck with White then gathering the pop pass to bulldoze over from close in. This left the score at 24-21 after 45 minutes played.

Another Gendale substitute Malon Al-Jiboori also had a huge impact scoring on the 62nd minute within a couple of minutes of entering the field. After a great initial break by Shaun Davies Al-Jiboori ran a great supporting line to gather the offload and secure the bonus point for Glendale and give them a ten point with the score being 31-21.

NOLA made substitutions of their own and it was the substitute prop Cam Falcon who drove over on the 71st minute from close in after
stringing together multiple phases. The score was 31-26 with 8 minutes to go and both teams still going hammer and tong and threatening to
boil over at times with Luke White in particular playing on the edge.

The Gold then unleashed a stinger blow to the Raptors with a great team try in which backs and forwards joined a maul to push captain Eric Howard over for this second try of the evening. J.P Eloff scored the conversion after it clipped the post and went over making the score 33-31 to NOLA Gold.

Chad Gough will take a huge sigh of relief this evening. The Raptors had a penalty with one minute to go but the instead of waiting to take a shot at the posts and win the game in what was a kickable position, Gough took a quick tap. Luckily for the Raptors they retained possession and won another penalty. Shaun Davies showed his leadership skills and quickly defused the situation. Robbie Petzer took hold of the ball and slotted over the penalty to win the game 34-33.