Palmyra has staved off a last ditch effort from Associates to take home a thrilling two point victory in a nail biting Friday night fixture to kick off round six of the Pindan Premier Grade competition.

The 29-27 score line reflected the intensity of the game as both sides battled it out in an extremely physical encounter but Palmyra made the most of their home ground advantage scoring four tries in the bonus point victory.

Soaks were nine points down with just minutes left in the game when Aamon Matuauto and Matt Dreyer combined for a converted try but the home side’s overall intensity and patience was enough to prevent any further additions to the score board.

It is Paly’s fourth win in season 2012 and could be enough to boost them into the top four on the Pindan Premier Grade ladder depending on the outcome of the remaining round six fixtures.

Palmyra coach Dave Ball was exuberant about his team’s performance and said his blood pressure copped a beating throughout the game.

“Now my heart rate’s come down a couple of beats I’m feeling great. It was a really good game of rugby and I thought it could have gone either way,” said Ball.

“I’d spoken to their (Associates) coach during the week and we thought it’d be pretty thrilling so it didn’t disappoint; a great Friday night game.”

When asked what Palmyra would take out of the game Ball said he couldn’t have asked for much more from his boys.

“To be honest that’s the best we’ve played all year and the boys know that so it’s just a question of working on the stuff that’s good and making it better and improving on the things that are bad,” Ball said.

“It’s our first win at home this year and we didn’t want tonight to be a third loss at home and become a bit of a hoodoo over us so I’m glad the boys were able to get that win to boost our confidence.”

Associates coach Andy Cole said while it was a good match in some aspects he was disappointed with his side’s defence.

“I don’t think you can expect to win any game by missing that many tackles and particularly against a team like Paly who if you allow them to get on a roll they’ll take advantage of it,” said Cole.

“The defence was particularly disappointing but we’ll evaluate and learn from it and come back tougher and stronger next time.

“If I’m honest I don’t think we deserved to win that because you can’t allow yourself to miss that many tackles and expect to win a game; if you’re going to win, do it by structure.”

It was a tug of war between the opponents in the early minutes of the game but it was Palmyra who gained the upper hand when fullback Trent Vatsalis broke the line to score the first try of the match. His conversion looked to be heading too far to the right but it just managed to slip through.

Not long after the home side increased their lead to 14-0 as they powered over the line once again and Vatsalis nailed the conversion.

Flyhalf Matt Dreyer put Soaks on the board at the 22 minute mark when he converted his own try.

Paly kicked off the scoring in the opening minutes of the second half with a try to Tame Rerieti but Soaks answered quickly through Cailan Richards as he side stepped a tackle and plunged over the line. Dreyer converted and followed this with an impressive penalty kick that got Soaks within firing distance.

Palmyra’s pressure was again on show in a swift set of play that saw quick hands land them over the line. This gave them the four try bonus point and Vatsalis finished it with his third conversion.

Soaks weren’t keen to let up and some fast feet saw Aamon Matuauto fly over the try line. Dreyer’s kicking radar was on target as he converted to give a mere two point difference in the final minutes of the match.

Soaks kept up the attack but the final siren eventually beat them, losing 27-29.

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