With time winding down the boys pressed down field again, edging closer and closer to the line. Soon we were only 5 metres out and with numbers out wide, Blacky found Dixon, who found Maher, who found Evans who drew the last man perfectly to set up Jacob Kain for a well worked try and the games first, an easy conversion was missed and the whistle was blown for half time, Redbacks up 8-0.

At the half time huddle the boys talked of how the game was ours if we wanted it, but we needed to keep up the fight.

Only five minutes into the second half the ref yellow carded a Bluetongue for back seat reffing. He had warned both sides during the game that he didn't like lip and being told one to many times what to do made him reach for the sky rocket to deliver the bad news to Bombala and the good news to us. We took a shot at goal for the awarded penalty and moved to 11-0.

Continuing the game's motto of "Give it all", both sides charged at each other time and time again, and when it looked like one side was getting the upper hand the other would do something special and turn the tide.

It was great to be a part of and great to watch as I was told by many a supporter after the game.

To use an example of how topsy turvy this game was, Bombala were attacking our line and were given a penalty 10 metres out, from which they took a tap and dived over for a try. The boys kept their cool though and raced back down the field for the kick off, from which they turned over pretty quick. The backs then used the ball and hit Johnny Steele on the fly 30 metres out, the damaging runner then broke through some would be tacklers and raced towards the line to score, the conversion was good and from the score being 11-0 one minute it had gone to 18-7 in the space of about 5minutes.

With 20 minutes to go then, it got really serious. We were pushed down into our corner and that is where we stayed. We were right on our line and our defence, which had been our weakness all year was under the microscope, with Bombala looking for anyway to break through.

The desperate Bluetongues threw everything they had at our defensive line and sometimes they snuck through, but most of the time they hit a solid wall. One instance where they did break through and looked like scoring, Nick Black was there. He held a bloke much bigger than himself above the line for at least 3 seconds, and knowing that reinforcements were coming the bloke he was holding up tried to ground the ball but dropped it over the line. That was what fighting spirit is all about and that is what every Redback showed for the full 80.

It was nail biting footy, and every break in play the ref was asked how long to go. Eventually after another Bluetongue attack was foiled the ref blew his whistle and the game was won.

Braidwood Redbacks 18 - Bombala Blutongues 7.

A game that was won by the effort of all the Redbacks in our squad.

Unfortunately we did not come away unscathed with a few boys copping a couple of injuries, the worse being Trent Moran who ripped some tendons off his shoulder. It was Trent's last game with us and I'm sure it wasn't the way he wanted to go out.

The boys would like to thank all the Ladies and Sponsors that allow us and get us on the paddock. If it were possible we would make every game a special occasion if that is the way we're going to play. Hopefully you had a good as day as we did.

Also a couple of little mentions: First to Fay Griggs who made Saturday a great as day as it was with all her work in front and behind the scenes. And secondly to Tony Cairns who came along to Thursday nights training and imparted his expansive rugby knowledge to the boys and put them through their paces. Thanks to you both.

Points this week: 3 - Johnny Steele has really come into his own these last couple of weeks. His ability to create something out of nothing and his wanting to never let any of his team mates down leaves you confident knowing he is on your side.

2 - Timmy Moffitt was back to his tackling best this week. Not only was he tackling anything that moved in blue he was also putting his hand up for runs when it was needed. Another all day effort from the Redbacks most consistent.

1 - James Evans is untouchable. Just ask the Bombala defence. At fullback, standing all alone, one's first instinct would be to kick for touch. Not Jimmy, even when he is stuck in his own in goal, he ran straight towards a defender then stepped on a dime leaving the Blutongues clutching air. It was awesome to watch, one minute you think he would get tackled the next his stepping his next defender, sometimes our boys would be so busy watching him work his magic they'd forget about the game, it was that good.

Players player - Ferret's tackling ability did not go unnoticed by his mates. Showing impressive strength he would get under the rib cage of every attacker and lift them before driving them back into the earth with bone crunching results. I know his opposing wingers will be feeling his work for a while.

Once again, thanks to everyone who took part in the day, hopefully we can see you again in two weeks time when we will have another hard game against Batemans Bay. We have next week off due to Milton folding but the boys are still going to get together on Saturday arvo to train.

Till next time,

The Redbacks Reviewer.