BARBARIANS delivered a double boost to their finals campaign with a 37-18 win over Robb on Saturday.
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The 19-point win secured Baa Baas home advantage for Sunday’s minor semi-final, and a psychological edge, with the two to match up in the do or die clash.
It was their second successive win over the students and was set up in the first half.
They led 27-11 at the break after Keith Ellis had made a nice break down the sideline to put Mitch Cooper in to open the scoring.
Robb got on the board with a penalty but Baa Baas ran in 20 unanswered points to lead by 16 at the break.
“It was a good win,” Baa Baas coach Brett Monley said.
“We had a really good first half.
“The second half we didn’t finish the job off.”
After what he thought was a pretty even start with both sides giving away “silly penalties”, he said Cooper’s try really started a roll-on for them.
The lineout was a bit of an issue for them but other than that he said they were “pretty good across the park”.
Dominic Bower had another “great” game as did Cooper and Sam Gates.
Ellis was also good and is really starting to come into some form.
Robb coach Sam Ditchfield thought they probably lost it in the first 20-25 minutes.
He had the score at 20-3 after 26 minutes and the penalty count heavily against them.
It meant they had to do a lot of defending.
“We tackled, tackled and tackled that first 25 minutes, which physically takes it out of you,” he said.
The second half was a lot better. They got a bit more parity, and on the scoreboard.
“We got a bit more possession and got a few more penalties ourselves,” Ditchfield said.
His stats had the penalty count as 8-4 their way in the second half.
He said it was very physical and there wasn’t a lot of space to operate in, with both sides quick off the line.
Both the scrum and lineout were a lot better for them than against St Alberts the previous week.
It was the two that Ditchfield had identified as the main dangers – Ellis and Gates – that he felt were the difference.
Both had outstanding games.
They will be a lot better for the hit-out though.
“A good tough game like that is only going to help our guys,” he said.
“We’ll take a lot of positives out of our last 40 minutes of footy.”
Will Rains had a strong game for them at hooker and picked up the three points.
Half-back Joe Melino got the two and Tim Bare the one.
He also made mention of Wilson McKenzie and Jock Brownhill, the latter moving in from fullback to five-eighth.