SOUTH Coast rugby was well represented on Saturday night as the Brumbies Rugby Provincial side slotted a penalty goal after the siren to beat Australian Police 25-23 at Canberra Stadium.
Bombala’s Raymond Kading joined brothers David (Broulee) and Andrew (Batemans Bay) Fleming as the South Coast’s three representatives on what was a thrilling night of rugby.
After trailing at half-time, the Brumbies Provincial side launched an audacious comeback that was completed from the kicking tee after the final whistle.
David Fleming came off the bench at the start of the second half and joined the front row, while his brother Andrew was introduced to the action around 15 minutes later and played in the centres.
Kading started the match and played as a flanker.
David Fleming said his side’s superior fitness level was what helped it clinch a late win.
“I think our fitness was slightly higher than theirs, which meant the last 10 minutes of the game was ours, and that was quite handy,” he said.
Fleming, who fractured his jaw during the game, praised the spirit in which the match was played and said that level of rugby was a major step up to what he is used to on the South Coast.
“It was great. It was nice, clean, hard rugby and when you get your hands on the ball you only have about half a second or a second before you hit contact unlike down here where you could have up to 10 to 15 seconds where you can avoid contact,” he said.
“So the pressure is always on at that level.”
However, Fleming insisted he didn’t have a dose of the pre-game butterflies as he is one that “tends not to get nervous”.
It’s not often that Eurobodalla players get the chance to play on such a well-groomed field and Fleming said he’d love to similarly lush fields in the shire one day.
“It’s a good oval, especially for scrums and rucking on,” he said.
“The Eurobodalla Shire Council could probably send some of their engineers up there to have a look at it.
“I think that would be money well spent. They don’t seem to be spending it very well anywhere else.”
The match served as a curtain raiser to the ACT Brumbies’ Super Rugby clash against the Blues.
In that match, the Canberra franchise went down 30-16 to narrowly miss out on a Super Rugby finals spot.
