Torrential rain had covered the playing surface with about 50mm of water which soon cut up to become a quagmire. Adding to the difficult conditions were intermittent downpours and a strong wind.

The Miners had first use of the wind and were soon made aware that the Boars had come to play with spirit and determination. The normally dominant Miners’ scrum was shunted in the first two encounters.

Throughout the first half, the Boars dominated field position and possession. The Miners’ ball retention was poor as passes were pushed, catches spilled and lost in contact. The Boars capitalized on this superiority with a penalty goal in the 30^th minute to set up a 3-0 lead at the interval.

The Boars stretched their lead with a second penalty goal early in the second half.

From this point onwards, the Miners lifted their intensity. Inspired by some dominant tackles by the Tuitupou brothers, the Miners brought themselves back into the contest.

They finally troubled the scoreboard attendant in the tenth minute of the second half when centre Michael Crichton scored a try in the corner after a crisp passing movement by the backs.

Bendigo continued to press forward with Jesse Tuitupou, Konrad Fepuleai and Johneen Fagavao making strong runs.

They were rewarded with a penalty goal opportunity in the midway through the half in a handy position but the kick went wide.

From this point on, play rarely moved out of the area between the quarter lines as the two teams slogged it out in the mud.

The Tyson’s Reef Hotel player of the day award went to Jesse Tuitupou. Others to shine included Fepuleai, Nick Dehnert, Elson Tuitupou, Johneen Fagavao and Michael Crichton.

Scorer: Crichton try.

Team: 24 N. Poingdestre, 2 E. Tuitupou, 3 J. Tuitupou, 4 N. Dehnert (c), 5 B. Westley, 6 A. Saville, 7 D. Fallaver, 8 K. Fepuleai, 9 S. MacDonald, 10 Jon Solomon, 11 J. Learai, 12 J. Fagavao, 13 M. Crichton, 14 Jeremy Solomon, 15 J. Manderson.

Replacements: T. Henderson, L. Tuitupou, S. McGrail, S. Fagavao, P. Thomas.

Reserves: T. Mulvaney, J. Jeffries, S. Queally

Emergencies: L. Eriksen, N. Whittle, V. Liufau

W. Coulter 54439165

The Miners will go in as underdogs against the minor premier Puckapunyal Boars who have beaten the Miners in two of three meetings this year. The Boars will also be rested after a week off while the Miners disposed of the Cobram Dust Devils in a bruising contest last weekend.

The Miners expect to be at full strength with only flanker Allan Saville under a fitness cloud. Saville strained a calf muscle in last week’s game but is hopeful of being fit to take his place.

The Fighting Miners are celebrating their fortieth anniversary this year and are hoping for a twelfth premiership to crown the celebrations.

The Fighting Miners playing squad is the epitome of multiculturalism and family traditions:

• there are five sets of brothers in the squad;
• seven of the players are sons of former players;
• players originate from seven countries – Australian both white and indigenous, New Zealanders both pakeha and Maori, PNG, Samoa, Tonga, Norway and Ireland.

The match kicks off at 3.00pm.

There are still seats available in the players & supporters bus which leaves Shadforth Park at 11.30am.

W. Coulter

Spearheaded by centre Michael Crichton, who scored an incredible nine tries, the Miners completely dominated proceedings, scoring twenty two unanswered tries.

From Crichton’s first try in the second minute of play till Vaai Liufau’s try in the final minute, the Miners were unrelenting. The longest period between tries was eight minutes midway through the first half.

The new records established for the Bendigo Rugby Club were:

•    most points in a match 140 eclipsing the 122  scored against Echuca-Moama in 2002;
•    most tries in a match 22, surpassing the 18 scored against Echuca-Moama in 2002;
•    most points in a match by an individual (Michael Crichton 45) easily beating the 33 scored by former Tongan test player Tevita Asi against Harlequins in 1994; and
•    most tries by an individual in a match (Michael Crichton 9) eclipsing the previous record of five held jointly by Leo Toma, Brent Karl, Warren Meeks, Gideon Tauelangi and Sione Uhi.

Had coach Alan Wilkinson not invoked the mercy rule by replacing Crichton with ten minutes left on the clock, Crichton would probably have reached double figures so easily did he breach the feeble Border Army defence.

The forward pack set the tone for the match when they took two tight heads at scrums in the first minute of play. By half-time, Bendigo had scored ten tries and established a 66-0 lead.

Referee Tony Miller took pity on the out-muscled Border Army scrum when he ordered uncontested scrums early in the second period.

Despite Wilkinson progressively emptying the bench, the scoring rampage continued in the second half. Crichton added three more tries to his first half six before being substituted.

The Tyson’s Reef Hotel player of the day award went to Crichton. Others to play well included Jesse Tuitupou, Johneen Fagavao, Elson Tuitupou, Josh Manderson, James Learai and Steve MacDonald.

Michael Crichton in action

Next week, the Miners will contest the preliminary final against the Cobram Dust Devils at Koonoomoo. The Dust Devils lost the major semi-final to the Puckapunyal Boars 7-12 in sudden death overtime after the scores were deadlocked at 7-7 at the end of normal time at Puckapunyal.

Scorers: M. Crichton 9, S.MacDonald 2, J. Tuitupou, K. Felupeai, Jon Solomon, J. Learai, J. Fagavao, V. Liufau, S. Fagavao, J. Jeffries, P. Thomas, T. Henderson, N. Poingdestre tries; J. Manderson 15 goals.

Team: 24 N. Poingdestre, 2 E. Tuitupou, 3 J. Tuitupou, 4 N. Dehnert, 5 B. Westley, 6 A. Saville, 7 D. Fallaver, 8 K. Felupeai, 9 S. MacDonald, 10 Jon Solomon, 11 J. Learai, 12 J. Fagavao, 13 M. Crichton, 14 Jeremy Solomon, 15 J. Manderson, 16 L. Eriksen, 17 V. Liufau, 18 S. Fagavao, 19 J. Jeffries, 20 P. Thomas, 21 N. Whittle, 22 S. Queally, 23 T. Henderson

By W. Coulter

The Fighting Miners will be at full strength for their clash with competition leader Cobram Dust Devils at Shadforth Park this Saturday.

In their last outing, the Miners knocked Puckapunyal Boars out of top position with a convincing win.

Bendigo coach Alan Wilkinson is confident his team can repeat the feat against the Dust Devils. In their two previous clashes with the Dust Devils this season, the Miners have a loss and a draw.

In both matches, the Miners were in a winning position until the last fifteen minutes of play but allowed the Dust Devils back into the games with a drop off in intensity and lack of discipline.

Currently, the Miners are in third position on the ladder with 36 points, trailing Cobram on 47 points and Puckapunyal on 45 points.

If the Miners can win their remaining three games with bonus points, they can get to 51 points. Both Puckapunyal and Cobram have a bye to come and will meet each other in the final round of home and away games. Accordingly, the Miners need to win all their games and hope that other results go their way in order to finish in the top two and get the double chance in the finals.

This Saturday’s game kicks off early at 1.00pm due to the Bledisloe Cup match in Melbourne.

W. Coulter

Please go along and support the lads at Shadforth Park, if you can as I’m sure they will appreciate it.

I chopped half a small onion and fried gently in a little butter. Then I broke up a slice of haggis from Rob’s in Dandenong, and mixed with the onion. Next, I added a small tin of baked beans and plastered the mixture evenly over a home-made base. I covered with an equal mix of grated cheddar and Mozzarella, then finished off with good pinch of mixed/Italian herbs. Cook in the oven as you would any less exotic pizza and Robert’s your uncle!

I waited until the kids had finished before I listed the ingredients in haggis…..”Heart!?!Lungs!?!Eeeww!”

Haggis and Baked Bean Pizza

A resurgent Fighting Miners thrashed competition leaders 46-20 in an eight try romp at Shadforth Park last Saturday.

After an indifferent start to the season, the Miners have now had an unbeaten streak of four matches.

In Saturday’s game, Bendigo ran in three tries in the first fifteen minutes through Jesse Tuitupou, Jeremy Solomon and Michael Crichton before Puckapunyal had gotten out of its own half.

Pucka then camped in the Bendigo half for a considerable period of time before the Miners’ defence was finally broken with a try in the 30^th minute.

On the stroke of half-time, Miners half-back Steve MacDonald pierced the Pucka defence in a strong 30 metre dash to establish a Bendigo lead of 20-5.

Pucka reduced the deficit to 10 points with a try early in the second half and appeared to be about to make a recovery.

However, the Miners switched back on, piling on four tries in the first 20 minutes of the second half to go out to a 46-10 lead

Scorers: Crichton 2, Thomas 2, Jeremy Solomon, J. Tuitupou, E. Tuitupou, MacDonald tries; Manderson 2, MacDonald goals.

W. Coulter

Read the full match report here.

The Miners have another bye this weekend (24th). They will be hoping for a reversal of fortunes against Cobram Dust Devils when the meet the following Saturday. The match is at Shadforth Park, North Bendigo on 31 July and kicks off at 1pm.

Note the 1pm kick-off! This is so that club members have time to get to Etihad Stadium for Wallabies v All Blacks game that evening. Tickets available at the time of this post.

The Fighting Miners are at full strength for their clash with competition leader Puckapunyal Boars at Shadforth Park this Saturday.

After two weeks on the road where the Miners beat Border Army and drew with Cobram, they go into the match with some degree of confidence.

In their two previous encounters this season, the Boars have won both but the Miners consider themselves unlucky to have lost the last match at Puckapunyal where they scored three tries to the Boars’ one.

With four matches and a bye remaining before the finals, the Miners are in fourth place on the ladder behind Puckapunyal, Cobram and Border Army. However, three of the four games are at home and the Miners are confident of overtaking Border Army.

To sneak into the top two and get the double chance in the play-offs, the Miners need to win all their remaining games, pick up some bonus points and hope other results go their way.

The match kicks off at 3.00pm

W. Coulter

…so get your backsides along to Shadforth Park and give the boys as much support as you can. See you there!

Worryingly, stores here in Australia are unable to keep up with demand. For sports fans, this cannot be good news. The 2010 World Cup will always be remembered for these monotonous, obnoxious horns and God forbid they be allowed to permeate the Aussie sporting culture!

My advice is say ‘No’ and particularly if you cannot confirm their origin. For instance, I would highly recommend against importing vuvuzelas from Papua New Guinea, where they are more commonly referred to as a koteka or phallocrypt.

Modern use of the infernal vuvuzela

More traditional use of the vuvuzela

Vuvuzela blowing technique demonstration

This lucky gal has two vuvuzelas to blow

An alternative use for the vuvuzela

In the dying seconds the score sat at a perfectly respectable 22 – 10, a score many Welshmen would have bitten arms off to take prior to kick-off, but a slip from Byrne was gratefully pounced on by Cruden for a late try that was a little hard to swallow.

The effort by the Welsh was considerable but I couldn’t help but feel that there was a little more to come. Like many of my school reports,  ‘Could do better’ summed it up nicely, but surprisingly more so for the home nation.

As to the ref, Caplan, I’ll say no more other than he listened to the crowd way too much and even the Kiwi supporters detest his refereeing style, which went a long way to ruining an otherwise good game of rugby.

The third half result was more even, with the Welsh fans just sneaking a glorious victory by drinking Hamilton dry of Guinness. A great night was had by all and one I hope to repeat next year at the Rugby World Cup  2011, here in New Zealand.

An honourable mention must go the Waikato stadium grounds staff. Despite the constant rain in the run up the the match, the pitch held firm and looked great. The folks responsible for the joke at the Etihad stadium could learn a thing or two.

Great view of the game!

What I mean is, it would be nice to meet up with the Welsh rugby fans who have descended on Hamilton in their droves for the 2nd Test tomorrow and partake of a few sherbets while we reminisce about the green, green grass of home; God’s country if you will.

I’ll have to get a taxi!

Got ticket?