Bust out your best Onesie/Jamy’s, bring your friends and join in for a fun night down at the Club.

The bar will be open and the tunes will be pumping from 7:00pm.

Watching his son’s under-10s game on Saturday morning, premier grade coach Tony Ball joked that he might have to take his boots to Allen Park that afternoon after news came through that his entire front row was doubtful for the match against reigning premiers Soaks. And by kick-off time the news was no better, with skipper Mason Pomare joining props Joe “Peanut” Richie and prop Mark “Rocket” Davies in the casualty ward, leaving Travis “The Pope” Church to play under sufferance as crook as a dog. Not that coach Ball had a full deck to play with in the backs either, with Cam Crowley joining injured stars Davis Tavita and Ben “No stop for smoko” Titoko on the sideline.
And it looked like being a hard day at the office when Soaks exploited their pack strength to score two early tries to take an early 14-nil lead. That’s the way things ended up for the first half before coach Ball gave his troops one of his old-fashioned half-time bawling outs that some nude bathers at Swanbourne beach apparently thought was the shark alarm.
If it was the ticker of his players that Bally questioned, he got the answer in the second half. What transpired over the next 40 minutes was a performance built on guts, composure and a never-say-die attitude.
When fullback Fred Tuua landed an early penalty goal, there was still plenty of daylight between the scores as Neddies trailed 14-3. With 10 minutes to go, the score-line remained the same. Then two acts of brilliance from halfback Mike “Roo” Ruru and fullback Fred Tuua stunned the home crowd. As Neddies hammered the Soaks line, Roo took a quick penalty tap and launched himself through various Soaks body parts to score. The conversion put Neddies in striking distance at 14-10, but time was the enemy.
However, launching a last desperate attacking raid from the kick-off, Richie “Rat” Naylor broke the line and fed Fred Tuua , who stepped his way to the line for a miracle try which sealed the dramatic 17-14 victory, one of the most satisfying of the season.
Despite the growing injury list, coach Ball did welcome one player back one influential player in former skipper Luke “Dogga” Doherty, getting his first run since injuring himself in last season’s semi-final against Soaks. Welcome back Dogga!
The win has left Neddies level-pegging with Cottesloe at the top of the log, opening up a 12 point buffer over Soaks and Wests. Next Saturday sees a return to The Foreshore as Neddies take on a Palmyra team who will be desperate to stay in touch with the four.

Full replay of Premier Grade from the weekend, courtesy of  LMSC.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-atuEza700u0TSR3xQzpckqH1YXcvHbx

Reserve Grade

The reserve grade were up against it coming into a game with one of the front runners. A couple of early penalties to Beau Hape kept them  in the contest and both teams looked quite even, with many back and forward breaks. Eventually Neddies found some space and hooker Reuben sprinted down the sideline in front of the Associates crowd to score in the corner. Jandre had an outstanding work rate and was instrumental in a few turnovers. Half time score was  10-11 to Neddies.

Soaks started with a hiss and a roar nabbing a couple of what seemed to be easy tries. Neddies played outstanding in patches but made crucial errors at the wrong times.  Beau Hape scored a great try after some good team pressure but in the end the damage had been done with the final score 25-18.

Under 20s

The game started off with a fury of penalties for Associates resulting in a try. Nedlands held Associates out until the last 5 minutes with some very good play. The half time score was 12-0.
Line outs started being a problem as Nedlands were losing line outs and possession.
Nedlands let in two tries early in the second half however showed some good play and matched Associates in patches.
Final score being 47-0 with a few soft tries in the last 10 minutes. An improvement from the previous game against Associates.

3rd Grade

With Aussie Bob still on hiatus and a few changes due to the FIFO lifestyle,  3rd grade knew they needed to come out guns blazing in Swanbourne.  Neddies lineout was on fire with multiple steals to Danny and Handsome, however they were unable to convert this pressure to any points. Penalties were also a problem with the referee taking quite a disliking to Suter. Maybe his prescription tinted glasses countered any effect of those rosy red cheeks. Finally after 30 minutes an Alvin-lou Lau break put the  not so shaggy Cam Sinden under the posts.

Half time and both teams were still in it. Neddies started to play some good rugby and after 20 minutes things opened up a little. Gadget sped down the sideline to score in the corner and then after some good work from English Max and slick team passing,  Alvin  was left with the ball and danced through Soaks defenders like he was dodging bullets in the Vietnamese jungle to score! Good support tries to Danny and Neis put the game well beyond doubt with the final score 33-3

4th Grade

The game started well with a solid first-up scrum and a good call to go blind by Sticho leading to the first five-pointer to Haydos. Continuing his fine form with the boot Haydos duly converted and we led 7-0. Pre-game talk was on winning the breakdown and the boys stuck to that well for most of the first half. Barry Kelly played like he was auditioning for a spot in the Lions with some great hits and strong work in the ruck/maul area. Some good thinking and a well-placed kick by Simon Ruri saw Gadget doing what he does best and scampering over for a try, 12-0 Nedlands. Soaks lifted to the challenge in and scored two tries to close the gap to 12-10.

Despite a slow start to the second half the machine got going again and finished the game strongly to win 36-15. Some really good rugby in the second half saw some great tries, non-better than the effort by Martin “Tank” Tutt. A quick tap and good gap running by Nicholas “Mara” D’Addona set things going then an off-load to Tank set the scene. Soaks may have been fooled by the #1 on his back, but the smart punters knew what was about to happen when Tank picked it up about 40m out from the line. Two great fends created some space and kicking in the afterburners made sure the fullback was rounded with ease. Why can’t all props run like that? Chad Collins capped off a really good game with a strong run down the cricket concrete sideline pushing players off before offloading to a welcoming Troy who finished the game off in style, scoring under the posts. A really satisfying game for the effort made at winning rucks, strong scrum and some good ball movement. The train is back on the tracks.
Welcome to George and hats off to Jesse and Trent who had big games in unfamiliar positions.

A NO Pay- NO Play policy will be brought into effect as of Thursday 10th of June

The fees payable are as follows:

Seniors      $300
Under 20’s     $200
Students/Apprentices    $200
To make a payment, please see Jimmy Grehan, or the staff behind the bar.
We accept EFTPOS, Visa & Mastercard payments

Jimmy Grehan

Date:                     11^th June, 2013

Time:                    6:30pm – 7:30pm

Venue:                 Nedlands Rugby Club

Player Level:      Nedlands Premier Grade, Reserve Grade and U/20

Western Force Coaches: Michael Foley, Nick Stiles, Dwayne Nestor (TBC), Strength and Conditioning coach (TBC)

To ensure we host our visiting guests in true Neddies style the Clubhouse and Bar will be open and a sausage sizzle has been organised, we would encourage as many of the players and club supporters to come down to the club to show our support for this event and spend an evening in the clubhouse to welcome our guests.

See you all there.

Neddies started off strong with an early penalty goal, followed soon by a great team try out wide and another penalty goal. Cottesloe kept themselves in the game by kicking a penalty goal and scoring a converted length of the field try against the grain of play. Nedlands took the lead into half time 11-10.
They were unable to carry the momentum through to the 2nd half, with discipline, resulting in 3 yellow cards, and poor defence let the boys down in the end. Final score was 32 – 17.

Under 20s

Neddies had a big win last week and wanted to back up the performance against Cottesloe.
Unfortunately Cottelsoe dominated the first half with possession and tries. Chris kicked a conversion from 40metres out, the half time score being 34-3.
Cottesloe scored an early try in the second half and Kevin Hughes receiving a yellow card half way through did not help Neddies from keeping the game from a blow out. Cottesloe only scoring 15 points in the second half making the final score 49-3.

3rd Grade

With aussie Bob on holiday it was left to the old stalwarts Tref and Alvie to take control. The  game kicked off in sunny conditions and the boys were straight into attack, within a minute Edwin sped down the sideline to score in the corner.  Things slowed down a touch but  the tries kept coming with Alvie grabbing a couple. Nase was on fire slotting conversions from the sideline giving Neddies a comfortable lead. There had been some niggle between the teams all game and in the end Cott managed to get a couple of tries, including a penalty try against Macca, however the damage was already done with the final score 41-17 to Neddies. Always good to beat the seagulls on home soil.

4th Grade

Despite having first use of a respectable south-westerly wind the fourths never really got going at Cott. For a number of reasons it was hard for Neddies to get our hands on the ball and keep it for long periods. To their credit Cott defended well and didn’t allow us much room to move and with a number of handling errors we were restricted to one try in the first half. That was a highlight though with some good phases and slick passing, putting Gadget over in the corner. That try showed what might have been if we had been able to keep a bit more possession for longer periods. Richie Jenkins had a cracker at halfback, winning us some valuable possession though his pressure on his opposite number.

A 7-3 lead at halftime meant we would have some work to do in the second half to keep Cott out as they were proving to be a worthy opponent. Their liking for the Nedlands side of the ruck was a feature although not one really given much attention by the ref. The second half was as tough a battle as the first with some great efforts into the wind pleasing feature, although the lineout still needs a bit of work. The Beast made some strong efforts and went very close with the outstretched arm to scoring the winning try. Tank must have refueled with some higher-octane fuel as he reemerged with some of his telling charging runs scattering bodies, but as in the first half we weren’t able to capitalize and keep long periods of pressure. With the wind and a strong kicker Cott were able to wear us down and take the points 13-7. Welcome to new players Snowy and Jesse and a big welcome back to manager extraordinaire, Pete Malcolm. We finish the first round in 2nd place, with a slim lead over Wanneroo and Cottesloe – plenty of work to do in the second round – bring it on.

A link to the RugbyWA write up can be found here.

Round eight saw Neddies head to Morley to take on Perth-Bayswater on Sunday in a game which was about as un-inspiring as the Force v the Highlanders the night before.
While Neddies came away with a bonus-point 45-17 win to maintain second spot on the ladder, it was an effort which earned a post-match spray from coach Tony Ball ahead of the all-important round nine clash with table-toppers Cottesloe at Paterson’s Stadium on Wednesday June 5.
Neddies took the field missing a string of backline stars and found themselves 3-0 in arrears after Perth slotted an early penalty goal.
However, the first of two tries by dynamo flanker Krysten Lawrence gave the visitors a lead which had increased to 24-3 by halftime after five-pointers to Mike “Roo” Ruru, ever-improving second-rower Mike Egan and midfielder Beau Hape.
In the second half, the momentum swung back to the home team after Roo was given an infringement-related yellow card. Perth scored two tries while Roo was in the bin to bring the scores back to 31-17. Suddenly, playing rugby on Sunday didn’t seem any fun.
However, almost immediately upon his return to the field, Roo demonstrated why he is one of the most lethal attacking weapons in the competition with a try under the sticks. He then set up Izzy for the final try of the match to complete the 45-17 victory.
With no rugby this weekend, Neddies can now look forward to the top of the table clash with Cottesloe at Paterson’s Stadium in the curtain raiser to the Lions opening match of their 2013 Australian tour against the Force on Wednesday week (June 5). Kick-off for the curtain-raiser is 3.20pm.
Make sure you are there to show your colours. GO NEDDIES!

Reserve Grade

The Reserve grade started slow and found themselves down 17-3 just after halftime. However a much more improved and desperate effort in the second half saw the visitors come away with a 25-20 victory.

Under 20s

The Under 20s scored their first win of the season and must have been too busy celebrating to submit a match report

3rd Grade

It took Neddies a good 25 minutes to wear down the large baysie forward pack. But once the flood gates opened there was no closing them. The final score was 51-0 with Lakey among others crossing a couple of times! Paul Baker was instrumental in his last start for Neddies, however being the team man he is, he subbed himself off to help develop the younger players. It wasn’t for long however as Trev Thomas needed a rest. The team has never looked so organised with new manager Dingo in charge.

4th grade

You know it will be a good day when “The Beast” Kavimbura takes the kick off and charges the ball forward like a rampaging rhino scattering bodies in his path. The scene was set and the boys didn’t disappoint, joining the party with some great support play and running rugby giving us several first half tries. DB was on fire with ball in hand, showing the value of keeping the legs pumping in contact, repeatedly coming out the other side. Either that or he still had a bit of jelly left him on from the Saturday night jelly wrestling sessions he uses to supplement his income. No matter the cause, the result was fantastic with many good yards made. Supporting the player with the ball was a feature of the first half and none more so than the effort by “The Beast” Kavimbura. Wising up to tracking the rampaging DB, “the Beast” took the pass with plenty still to do and continued the carnage of strewn black shirted bodies on his way to a cracking try. Muzz McLean reckoned he hadn’t heard of such a good try since the ones created by Magnum’s vivid imagination in the heyday of the Nomads.

A bit of a lapse in concentration saw Perth on our line for a period before getting over out wide. We had absorbed the pressure of multiple rucks on our line, again showing good defence as a team, before they went wide and caught us out – need to number up fellas. The tried followed the ref losing patience with the pilfering tactics of the Hamburgler Lee sending him back to the Maccas next door for 10 minutes.

Hard to split DB and “Tank” Tutt for best on the day. Tank is rapidly developing a reputation for the most damaging front row runner in Nomads/4th grade history. Good to see the psych sessions worked and he put the kicking boots away until golden oldies days. Some great yards made and he could have had a second try himself if he hadn’t tried to offload to a Gadget finding it hard to keep up with him.

Perth came back in the second half, but Neddies kept up the pressure to continue on for an enjoyable and well-earned victory. A bit of experimentation with an entry in the “biggest first five ever to play for Nedlands” with the Stig showing he is multi-talented doing a great job directing play. Blackie and Max competed for the “most unlikely half back ever” role. Nice try boys, but your chances of playing there as likely as Quade getting a gig while Dingo Deans is coach – none. Great club spirit on show with several players sticking around to stand by. Lakey was even able to add a quick lesson in running good lines into gaps for another try.

Last weekend was a big one for Neddies winger Jake Wilson. Returning from a couple of weeks in the casualty ward, the young speedster was narrowly shaded in the 90 metre sprint at halftime in Friday night’s Force match at Nib Stadium. And Jake backed that up with a man of the match performance against University in Saturday’s round seven fixture at The Foreshore.
It was an emotional bonus-point win for Neddies to retain the Mike Denton Memorial Trophy. And it was an even more emotional evening after both Dents’ mother Ruth and Lhani Davies, who also lost a son to methanol poisoning, spoke about their efforts to warn young tourists about the life-threatening dangers of drinking spirits in Bali.
On the field, apart from welcoming back a few injured players, the Neddies line-up also included debutant lock Josh Eden-Whatiri, who looks a handy unit. Few would have predicted such an open running game in which no fewer than 11 tries were scored, but that is how it panned out.
After being rocked by a loss to Kalamunda the week before, Neddies found themselves behind early when Uni crossed for the first try. However, Neddies then rattled off three tries to halfback Mike “Roo” Ruru, inside centre Ryan “For crying out” McLeod and five-eighth Fred Tuua (bouncing back from a knock to the head that would have felled a rhino) to go to the break with a 19-8 lead.
The second half was a point scoring spectacle which started when Jake Wilson executed a perfect chip and chase try down the sideline in front of both his ecstatic mother and The Third Half supporters crew. It was last October on the Neddies Borneo sevens trip that young Jake told coach Tony Ball of his goal to cement a premier grade spot in 2013. And the former England under-18 winger has made every post a winner since then to emerge as one of the stars of the Neddies backline and a premier finisher.
Uni and Neddies continued to swap tries for the next half an hour before things got a little tense when the visitors scored to steal back a 34-29 lead. But Neddies was not about to let the Mike Denton Memorial Trophy leave its sacred home on The Foreshore, with Jake and Ryan McLeod making it two each for the match to secure the 43-34 win.
It was one of those days down at The Foreshore which makes us all extremely proud to be part of the Neddies clan.
Next weekend sees Neddies take on Perth-Bayswater at Morley in a round which has been moved to Sunday because of the early kick-off between the Force and Kenny Read’s Highlanders at Nib on Saturday.

Reserve Grade

The Reserve Grade fired out of the blocks, scoring 2 try’s in the opening 10 minutes of what was going to be an exiting game. As expected University returned fire with a try of their own shortly after. Nedlands weren’t finished and scored another try midway through the 1st half. Jake Stevens was on the unfortunate end of a yellow card in the dying minutes of the first half. It didn’t take University long to capitalise on missing man out wide, putting in a chip kick behind the defensive line allowing the open man to sprint through and put pressure on Fullback Ben Jordan. A seemingly standard tussle to gain possession in goal was interpreted as foul play, delivering a penalty try to the visitors.
The Neddies boys started off the 2nd half strong and it wasn’t long before they scored the bonus point try. As they did in the first half University hit back with a try of their own. The majority of the remaining quater of the game was played in the Nedlands defensive half with the boys holding out until the University Flanker found a hole around the ruck to run in a try untouched. The conversion put Uni in front for the first time in the match with 4mins to play, however the boys in Blue weren’t finished yet, they retained the ball from the kick off and sent the ball wide to Centre Isi Lata, who smashed through 3 tackles and won the race to the try line. The conversion sealed the game, with a well deserved 35-29 win the home team. Player of the day was Isi Lata, who scored a hat trick of try’s. I’m sure the Reserve Grade boys will be hounding him for the 3 try carton!

Under 20s

Nedlands wanted a big game to bounce back from last weeks loss. Uni scored 2 quick tries and then Brian’s big hits fired the boys up and they played well for 10 minutes before Uni crossed again.
The half time score was 33-0 to Uni. Second half did not start well with Uni scoring off the first play of the half. Two red cards got dealt with a few punches being thrown, one of the red cards was Neddies number 5, Wazza.
Good finish to the game by Neddies with Elliott setting up a try for Tom.
Final score being 85-5.

3rd Grade

After last weeks unspeakable loss to Kalamunda by 1 point, the travel weary coach Aussie Bob took the side through a quickfire training run and some choice motivational speeches during the Thursday nights session.
These choice speeches delivered with a hint of a gallic twang delivered immediate results come game day. Everyone turned up firstly on time and with their game heads on.
The boys started off well but a slip in concentration and communication let Uni in for a try 5 min in. Thirds Bounced back after that speedbump to score almost straight away. From then on the game was played almost to perfection with everyone putting in to get around the paddock. The support play and energy showed by all players contributed to a great team effort. We were up 27 – 7 at Halftime.
Uni came out after the rest at halftime with vim and vigour but conceded a try pretty much from the kickoff, but they rallied and pressured our line for quite a while. Then it was back to business for the Nedlands pack as the backs and forwards interacted very well to score some classy tries that only teams who support each other can.
In the end the Thirds scored 10 tries, converted 2 and got one penalty for a Full time score of 57 – 7.
Try Scorers were Suter and Naylor 2 each, Lau, Chia, Mc Gregor, Robertson, Christian and The Burglar Jimmy Lee got 1 each. Nace kicked 2 conversions and one penalty goal. POD went to Mark McGregor.

4th Grade

In a word, disappointing, that we didn’t get the points. But in this game there was much to be happy about. Again the team showed a great commitment and character in keeping the opposition out, allowing only one try. Strong defence sets you up to win more games than you lose and the fourths are developing something together that is making hard for the opposition to get through us. This takes trust in each other and being willing to be physical in the tackle. Only conceding one try and forcing the team that has been racking up cricket scores to take penalty kicks for goal showed the benefits of working hard in defence.
Special mention for big Martin “Tank” Tutt who had a cracker with several charging runs on top of a heavy workload up front in the engine room. Great game Tank, just need some more practice on the chip kick, or posibly don’t kick at all.  Maybe some joint sessions along with Gadget with the team psychologist on controlling the urge to kick might be in order. On a day where the set pieces were under a lot of pressure from the experienced Uni pack, Tim Badham had a good strong game at halfback, often dealing with ball delivered under pressure and making some telling runs in attack. There were no “Go Gagdet” moments in this one, just a really tough game that kept asking us to front up.
A key factor was how well the team adjusted to the many changes in players during the game. Being successful on the scoreboard and providing game time for the many players on the sideline thirsting for some action is a challenge. This has worked well for us so far because all players are really going for it when they are on the field. Fresh legs can be crucial and lift those around them. This was a good tough challenge that we met pretty well and will make us that much harder to beat from here on in. Well done lads.

5th Grade

The might Cavaliers found themselves back in the winners circle against Palmyra. They must still be celebrating their 45-3 victory, as we are yet to receive a match report.