Roosters put Ghosts down pecking order
By Tim Howard
The crowd at Grafton Ghosts home ground, Frank McGuren Field were treated to a display of champagne football on Saturday hosting competition favourites the Nambucca Roosters.
Unfortunately for the home crowd most of the champagne was flowing from the Roosters who crushed the Ghosts 62-12.
Nambucca gave the Ghosts a taste of what was to come in the eighth minute when they were hot on attack in the Roosters quarter.
A loose pass fell into the hands of half Logan Jones who found speedy centre Dane Saunders sprinting onto the ball.
He galloped 60 metres to score in the left corner. Fullback and kicker Tyronne Roberts-Davis missed the conversion.
Roberts Davis was in the action again a few minutes later as the Rooster found themselves attacking down the right side in the Ghosts end zone.
Two looping passes back to the left found Roberts-Davis with the ball in centre field.
He punched a grubber kick towards the goal line, which bounced over the fingers of winger Liam Bloomer, but into the arms of Roosters flyer Beau Langford, who touched down about five metres in from touch on the left side of the field.
This time Roberts-Davis was successful with the kick, giving the Roosters a 10-0 lead about 15 minutes in.
From the kick off the Ghosts enjoyed one of their few lucky breaks of the day.
Cooper Woods long kick-off hit the crossbar and bounced into the field of play and Nambucca Jones fumbled his attempt pick up the loose ball.
Bloomer seized on the opportunity and skirted the defence to score in the right corner.
Woods’ kick from the sideline was successful with the Ghosts back in the game at 10-6.
But the advantage was short lived.
From the kick-off they surrendered possession on the first tackle of the set giving Nambucca great field position to work in.
They nearly blew it. Their live-wire lock Jay Melrose was forced to clean up a sloppy pass from dummy half and as he wrestled with the defence, was able to slip a short ball to five-eighth Tyreece Sines.
He dashed across field and was able to reach out and put the ball across the line about 10m in from the right touch line. Roberts-Davis converted for a 16-6 lead.
The Ghosts tried to hit back and were attacking in the Roosters quarter when a short kick for the line bounced up for winger Jack Margetts.
He broke free of a tackle and pass to Jones who showed plenty of pace on a 70m dash to the tryline. The conversion was unsuccessful leaving the scoreline at 20-6.
With 10 minutes remaining in the half, the Roosters were in again, this time attacking down the right side of the field.
Melrose turned up in the outside centre position and passed to substitute Toby Batten.
Confronted by a wall of defenders he flung a long ball infield, which Margetts held onto and raced over to score under the posts. The conversion was successful putting the Roosters ahead 26-6.
The Ghosts showed what they could do from the restart when the Roosters knocked the ball dead in goal from the kick off.
They tried a short restart, but the Ghosts regathered and on the next play attacked on the right side of the field.
Woods showed great sleight of hand to deceive the Roosters defence with a short ball to Jake Martin, who raced over to score near the posts.
Woods’ conversion made it 26-12.
The Ghosts looked attack in the final minutes of the half and with two minute left after a wild scuffle on at the sidelines, Roberts-Davis was sent to the sin bin.
But it was the Roosters who had the final say in the half when centre Rhys Hambly was penalised for a high shot on Jones as the halftime hooter sounded.
Batten knocked over the penalty from close range to make the score 28-12.
The Ghosts came out for the second half a player up with Roberts-Davis in the bin for the opening minutes.
But it made little difference to the play.
The Roosters scored again from depth when Sines made a break on half way, found hooker Jacob Welsh backing up, who fought through a tackle and pass infield to Margetts.
The winger dummied, straightened and forced his way across the line just to the left of the posts.
The winger scored his third try five minutes later, again backing up a Welsh break down the right, which gave him a clear run to the line.
Roberts-Davis returned from the bin, happy to have seen his side score twice during his absence.
The game became a procession for the Roosters in the second half with the Roosters scoring almost every time they entered the Ghosts quarter.
Jones evaded three defenders to score in the corner to make it 44-12.
The Roosters reached 50 with another try to Jones backing up a Margetts break down the right wing.
Roberts-Davis next score showed the Roosters at their attacking best.
Running out of their half Sines placed a delightful short kick into space, which Roberts sprinting through, caught on the full.
He threw a dummy to wrong foot the cover and then sprinted 50m to score under the posts.
Sines finished the scoring with another sweeping move into the right corner. Roberts-Davis converted from the sideline to finish the scoring with a couple of minutes left.
The Ghosts were short handed for this crucial game against the competition favourites.
Rugged prop Oliver Percy was out as was hard tackling second rower Cameron Winters.
It forced captain coach Dylan Collett to move from the centres to second row, where he tackled himself to a standstill.
Yet such was the ad-lib style of the Nambucca team that the Ghosts defence up the middle was relatively sound.
Of the 11 tries they conceded three were length of the field breaks, several more were scored from 50 to 60m out and all were scored by the backs.
The Roosters made a mockery of the conventional wisdom of rucking the ball out of defence. Many times they swung the ball wide early in the tackle count and deep in their half.
On attack they moved the ball from one side of the field to the other, searching for gaps.
The South Grafton Rebels continue to struggle going down 30-26 to Sawtell. Both sides scored five tries, but the goal kicking of Sawtell’s Dean Wearing, who kicked five from five, was the difference in the scores.
On Sunday the Ghosts will host Macksville, looking to avenge their bitter 34-22 round five defeat.
It’s a vital game for the fifth-placed Ghosts who trail Macksville by just one point.
The Rebels are on the road to Nambucca and face a mighty task to topple the front runners on their home turf after losing out to the 46-12 at home on May 19.
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