A FIRST grade premiership has been 13 years in the making for the Bega Roosters according to captain-coach Ryan Apps.
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“The fairytale has happened, it’s done now,” Apps said with a laugh.
The Roosters overcame the Narooma Devils 28-8 in a game where the score didn’t reflect the quality of play.
Two fantastic intercept plays put Bega in good stead early on to get Narooma out of sorts.
“We knew it was going to be a tough test from the start, but we had them on the back foot early on,” Apps said.
Bega scored early on to take the advantage, but play settled to a steady rhythm.
The Devils pushed valiantly towards the Roosters’ line, but an intercept by Marty Scott-Thomas saw him sprint 80 metres to score on the right wing.
“Boo running 80 metres just made the whole team jump to another level,” Apps said.
Again the Devils worked hard through the ruck and gained valuable metres, but were unable to capitalise.
A number of high-flying bomb kicks were squarely marked by Bega’s clever backs in Scott-Thomas and Craig Matthews.
After a long-driving kick from Blake Robinson, the Devils were pushing out of their own 20 when Ryan Apps took a loose carry and cleaved through three defenders to score beside the posts.
The half-time break had the Roosters in front comfortably.
The second half played out in a similar fashion, except for one extended period of Narooma possession.
“We kind of hit a ditch in the second half,” Apps said.
“Narooma had about six sets right in front of our line and we did let one try through.
“But we didn’t dip our heads,” he said.
The Roosters were still clear favourites at 24-8, but were able to breath even easier when Adam Blacka ran in a try on the left touch line.
Robinson missed the kick from the difficult angle, but 28-8 was enough to keep the Devils at bay.
In the earlier league-tag match, the Chicks lost to the Cooma Fillies 16-10.
A number of unfortunate handling errors early on let Cooma get the advantage in the first half.
The Chicks played solidly in the second half, but warm conditions were tiring and they couldn’t bypass the Cooma defence to score.
In the under 18s game, the Roosters had a rocky game and were actually two points behind with just minutes to play.
Strong runs from Cody Hazelgrove-Danvers, Luke Dowdle and Jye Britten put the Bega squad in a good position though.
The Roosters opted for the kick off a penalty and levelled the scores at 18-18.
With just two minutes left to play, the Bega squad again surged forward and James Bower-Scott spiralled a field goal between the posts to win 19-18.