Ali Spencer plays the ball for Binalong.

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The Binalong Jersey Girls came up against the competition leaders the Harden Hawkettes on Saturday and they put in an admirable performance after they managed to slow the Hawkettes down after the maroon and whites scored three tries in 8 minutes.

    Ali Spencer has been a part of the Jersey Girls side for more than 10 years, spending time away for a couple of years when she was expanding her family with husband, President Ben Spencer.

The Binalong stalwart was on hand on Saturday taking part in the match and was happy with how the side is building.

“They are the powerhouse and have been for many, many, years, but with our side this year we were confident we were going to give them a good run. In previous years we were getting flogged 60-0, so it was good to get points off them. The score ended up being 14-30.

“They scored an early try and we were missing tags. Their ability to get through the line is unbelievable.

“In attack we were throwing it at them and they were getting pretty frustrated at times. We had them down their end for a good 15 minutes of the game at one point.

“In the second half they didn’t score until about 17 minutes in and you could see the frustration as they weren’t used to being held out for so long.

Binalong’s Jane Dyball goes for a tag on ‘Jazzie’ Chesworth.

“Although we had a loss, to us, it was a really good effort against such a good side.

“Last week we played Coota and ended up drawing against them. We should have won it, but they ended up scoring in the last thirty seconds from our poor defensive line. We weren’t sliding in defence and they got us on the back foot.

“We are pretty excited this year. We are looking to be in the top four or five at the end of the season. We hope to be in the finals. We have a bye this week and then Crookwell next round. They beat us in the first round and we were missing some key players and it was really our first game together. We are hoping to bring it against Crookwell and get a win. Harden had to come from behind to get the win against them the week before.

Harden’s Emma James kicks off.

With three quick tries on the board in the first 8 minutes the game could have been a lot closer against Harden and it might be next time.

“I think we just started really flat and they brought heaps of energy to their game first up and we had to catch up on that side of things, but once we got into the game it was a really good contest.

“I’ve been playing for the Jersey girls since 2014. I played my 50th game on the weekend and that’s with having a few seasons off with having babies. Taylah Phillis (now Bradshaw) also had her 50th game on the weekend.

 

By Matthew Stadtmiller

Yass Valley Times