Rockingham dominate

Rockingham Rugby Union Club dominated at the weekend when they took on Kalamunda and Mandurah at Lark Hill, with three wins and a draw.

With a determined and structured performance from the opening kick Rockingham’s premier grade took the win from underneath Kalamunda, winning 27-19.

Rockingham’s aggressive running and willingness to counter attack saw them cut through Kalamunda’s defence seemingly at will, but the final pass regularly went astray, halting the attack, and allowing Kalamunda to relieve pressure.

On Kalamunda’s first attacking trip into the Rockingham half they came away with three points as Rockingham infringed at the ruck.

Despite Rockingham dominating for the next 10 minutes Kalamunda again came away with a point from their lone attack, putting the visitors up 10-nil.

With points on the board Kalamunda looked more comfortable in possession but Rockingham continued to defend strongly.

A long range penalty extended the margin to 13-0.

Rockingham’s challenge got harder when prop Leiza Aholelei was shown a yellow card for a late hit on the kicker.

With the penalty taken down field Kalamunda had been handed another chance to extend the lead, but struck the post.

Rockingham finally took some reward when Shaun Cooper put Jayden Briggs through the defence, showing clean heals to run in from 50 metres to keep them in touch at 13-7 at the half.

The second half swayed Rockingham’s way when Kalamunda had a man binned for a infringement.

The resulting lineout and drive saw Ryan Tyrrell give Rockingham the lead, 14-13.

An off-ball incident saw both sides lose a player for 10 minutes and the game then opened up for Rockingham, with Kalamunda down two men.

Aholelei made up for his earlier binning with a try, coming from an outstanding play by Nua Fono-Hunt, which put Rockingham out to 21-13.

Kalamunda persisted with the tactic of taking every opportunity to score, taking long range penalty shots over a 10 minute period, with only one crossing the bar.

As Kalamunda tried to close the gap Rockingham replied with a long range shot to maintain the margin, 24-16.

Another long penalty put Kalamunda within a converted try closing the margin to 24-19, with five minutes to play.

Despite pushing hard a late penalty saw Rockingham win.