Rugby juniors are almost un-Beetle-Bull

It’s been a busy few weeks for the Busselton Beetles U8s squad.

July 13 and 14 saw three of our heroes out on loan to the Bunbury Bulls, competing in the annual NAIDOC week sevens tournament in Australind.

Teams from Perth and across the South-West, sported Noongar language team names to honour the lands they live, train and play on.

For Bertie, Finley and Bailey, pulling the Bulls (Boolok) shirts on was like being permitted access to a shop selling plates and other breakable items of crockery as they smashed their way through new opposition.

Finley must have decimated a whole dinner service during one encounter as he left three would-be tacklers sprawling on his way to the try line.

Bertie discovered the, until now, elusive route 1, charging headlong into the fray, ball in hand, and for Bailey it was business as usual with some excellent textbook tackles.

The best part of the weekend though wasn’t the individual performances, it was how the kids from two different clubs came together as a team, communicating well on the field and stringing together several phases of play at a time.

Last week a couple of Bulls players, Damien and Zieke, had a chance to repay the loan, bolstering the Beetles team to face the toughest team on the rotation, the Barbarians.

It used to be said that rugby is a ruffian’s game played by gentlemen, however there were certainly no gentlemen or ladies on the pitch for this one.

There were plenty of hand-offs, big hits and grinding mauls, some of which elicited audible tenacious growls as neither side wanted to cede the ball to the other.

Riley Di Stefano positioned himself well behind the breakdowns to capitalise on recycled ball and to take down any breakaway runners. Indriya was once again found in the thick of the action with support from Wendy and Bodhi. The Bulls players slotted in well and helped drive the Beetles to another win.