Tallon Smith

A kicking masterclass from halves Callum Rossiter and Eli Williams lifted the Tumut Blues to a crucial 30-24 victory over the Wagga Brothers at Twickenham Oval on Sunday.

The six-point win, in which centre Angus Williams picked up a hat-trick assisted each time by winger Fynn Debono, keeps the Blues four points outside the top five with six rounds of the regular season remaining.

Despite securing the two points, Tumut coach Dean Bristow said his side didn’t assert its dominance of the match on the scoreboard.

“I thought it was a game we dominated in large periods, but we just couldn’t dominate the scoreboard,” he said.

“The first 25 minutes we had all the possession and field position, but we just couldn’t convert it into points.

“We didn’t nail our first three conversions on our tries, and unfortunately we couldn’t mount the scoreboard pressure to go with it, and then we let in a couple of soft tries throughout the game and sort of always allowed them back in it.

“We did manage to get out to 30-16 with about 10 minutes left, but then we allowed them two late ones with all the momentum at the back end of it.”

The Blues set the tone for the theme of the afternoon early, with Debono tapping a Rossiter kick down to Williams who got the ball down in the corner.

That margin grew to 12-0 by the half-hour mark, with Rossiter slicing through before Debono took another of the former’s kicks left to bounce to race in and score.

Needing to be next to hit the scoreboard, Brothers responded with two tries before the break, with Cohen Benson going over, before the halfback turned provider for William Crosbie Rolleston to close the gap to two at half time.

Debono and Williams resumed their dominance on the last tackle on the other side of the break, with the winger again taking a Rossiter kick and finding his centre on the inside to extend the Blues’ lead to 18-10.

The Wagga side again hit back through strike centre Cleve McGhie soon after to reduce the margin, but it was back out to eight points when Tumut fullback Malik Aitken broke multiple tackles to score, and grew to 14 when Eli Williams found Debono with another crossfield kick, with brother Angus going over for a third.

In a show of the tenacity that saw them overrun Cootamundra and push Young all the way, Brothers found two more tries late through Waratana Hartley and Joey Tolhurst, but in the end the Blues were able to hold on for much-needed victory.

Although Angus Williams’ three-try contribution proved pivotal in securing the result, Bristow said while the centre put himself in the frame, he had Debono to thank for creating the opportunities.

“He [Williams] just put himself in the right spot there, our kicking game has been a lot better this year, it has been one of our attacking threats, our kick,” he said.

“Fynn Debono on the wing, who has got a bit of an AFL background, he is a bit of an aerial threat there, and Angus has just put himself in the right spot at the right time, and I think he needs to probably credit those three tries to him.

“Fynn scored one himself off a similar thing, so they have been working well out there together, and they are a kick target as well, and to get [those] tries, they put us in good stead to win the game.”

While the eighth-placed Blues sit two games behind fifth-placed Junee with six rounds to go, the draw is fortunate to the men from the Snowy Valleys. 

The Blues will face four of the teams they are battling for fifth, in Cootamundra (round 12, home), Wagga Kangaroos (round 14, home), Junee (round 15, away) and Albury (round 16, away).

This puts the Blues’ finals chances in their own hands, although Bristow did concede Tumut’s slow start has put it in a tough position where results will need to fall the side’s way.

“We have put ourselves in this position, those few games for the first half of the season where we didn’t close out, and we didn’t manage to take the two points, so we have put ourselves in a position where we don’t control our own destiny, and we are sort of the chasing pack,” he said.

“Each week for us is really important, and this week is no different [with] a big match against Gundagai.

“We probably let the scoreboard get away from us when we played them over here in round two, so it is a big occasion for us again, it probably rides a lot again on our season, so just a little bit of extra motivation for us to get up for it this week.”

Brothers will face Albury at home on Sunday.