From The Sideline. (Round 5 - Women's 10's - Richmond Range)
The difficulties faced by the zone in formulating a draw for 2022 have been well documented in a previous post. This has been worsened by the prolonged spell of wet cool weather that continues, highlighted by the fact that only one of nine scheduled matches in division one and two were played last Saturday and the remainder postponed due to waterlogged pitches. The zone will face difficulty in rescheduling the competition should the weather pattern persist. Unfortunately this weeks round of fixtures appears unlikely to take place.
On the bright side, last Saturday was a successful day for women, both in the political sphere, and Far North Coast Rugby, with the women’s fixtures played as scheduled. Our ladies drove up the range to Mallanganee Memorial Oval to take on Richmond Range in wet and boggy conditions. The match was played before a very vocal good natured crowd. It was a tough encounter with the scores remaining level with one try apiece with eight minutes left on the clock. Rangers took advantage of some poorly directed kick-offs running in four late unanswered tries. The final scoreline of 27-5 was compounded by the fact that we lost the boat race.
Rangers were formed in 1970 from a very small population base, and despite going into recess in the competition for a number of years both in 1986 and 2011, they have been resurrected recently under the guidance of former Wallabies sevens player Alex Gibbon. Bus trips to Rangers were a highlight of our season, and in 1986 our club founder Graham Steel crafted the goat’s head cup which today sits proudly in Rangers’ clubhouse. We’ll have a crack at returning it to Ballina on the 9th of July when Division two and the Women’s team return to Mallanganee.
In stark contrast the demise of the University Rugby Club has recently occurred due to the changing face of the student population, the addition of many extra-curricular winter activities, and the sad passing of ‘chief recruitment officer’ Maurie Ryan in 2014. A solid rugby background perhaps helped enrolment in the early days. Home and away clashes in four grades between Ballina and Uni were a highlight of the season. In 1991 Uni won all four premierships. Ballina won it’s inaugural First grade flag in 1992 defeating Uni on the fulltime whistle in a nail biter at Quays and we were thumped 41-5 by Uni the following year at Oakes Oval. It was Hick’s (Current Coach Chris Hickey’s) final coaching assignment in his successful first term at the club, and he headed to Tuggeranong with plenty to ponder. Of interest former Wallaby Justin Harrison and current Waratah’s coach Darren Coleman were playing for Uni in that grand final.
Rain dances are banned henceforth! So are weddings when home fixtures are scheduled. Let’s all hope and pray that our next home games scheduled for 6th of June against Byron Bay and Yamba take place as scheduled. They will be followed by a Pacifica themed night with pig on the spit, hangis and more. So into the clothes chests, dig out your floral shirts and sarongs and head down to Quays for a great day’s fun and entertainment.
