Kalamunda Club Report, Round 5

Contrasting styles made for an exciting game on Saturday when the LJ Hooker Kalamunda Bulls took on Palmyra at home. The vigorous forward play of the Bulls’ was ultimately insufficient for them to overcome the speed of the Palmyra backs as they went down 41-29.

The Bulls started well early and scored in the opening minutes to go out to an early lead. The Kalamunda forwards applied themselves and had Palmyra back peddling but all too often hard earned pill was coughed up by the Kalamunda backs to let the pressure off. Then in a devastating 25 minutes of counter attacking rugby, the Palmyra backs punished weak defense, and returned errant kicks for scores to leap to a 25-12 half time lead.

From the restart it looked like a rout was on the cards as poor options and ball retention by the Bulls’ backs saw the ball being turned over in mid field and moved quickly for Palmyra to score again.

When most teams would have hung their heads, the Bulls’ forwards fought back and denied Palmyra and their own backs possession. Keeping the ball tight, the forwards rumbled upfield and turned pressure into points. Utilising this technique they scored three tries to go into the final two minutes of the game trailing 29-34 and the home fans went wild.

Again the Kalamunda backs let themselves down with poor options in their defensive zone that gave Palmyra possession and ultimately another score. This extended their lead and crushed Kalamunda’s hopes of a fairy tale finish.

All the Kalamunda forwards played well but eye catching were number eight Brent Walker, lock Adam Todd and prop Fihi Kivalu. Kivalu has been an inspiration to the Kalamunda forwards and earned a well deserved Player of the Day award for the second week running.

Early games saw the Kalamunda Colts win 41 – 5 and Reserves, 3rd Grade and Women’s teams going down.