Strong start to the season for junior Beetles

Finally the long wait has come to an end, rugby season has started!

It wasn’t a soft start for the newly anointed Beetles under 10s side, as they travelled to the Bunbury Bulls, at the weekend, for the ANZAC carnival.

Three games back to back, 60 minutes of end to end rugby, against The Bulls, The Barbarians and The Mandurah Pirates.

The Beetles were off the mark quickly, eager to lay down the gauntlet.

Jai Allen’s blistering pace on the wing left the spectators in awe as he sailed over again and again putting the Bulls on the back foot.

Arie Ward, warmed into his role as captain, forming and re-forming the backline into some semblance of order when things got messy.

He was rewarded for his efforts, making his own mark with touch line teasing runs down the opposite wing.

For last year’s U8s, moving up into the U10s has brought on a whole host of changes and new rules to ingest, not least of which, is learning to play as a forward or a back in a designated position.

So, this was the first time Bertie (Farr-Jones) Davis had taken on the scrum-half position.

He quickly made it his own, burrowing into the backs of the rucks and mauls to serve up a steady stream of clean ball.

After overcoming the Bulls in the first, the Beetles met stiffer opposition in the Barbarians.

Fortunately, they still had plenty left in the tank and picked up where they had left off.

Their tenacity in the tackle and determination to retain the ball in the tight served them well and they notched up another win.

Play of the day goes to Loki de Caen who stunned the opposition (as well as the crowd) with a pass out the back of his hand to set up a dash for the tryline.

40 minutes of fast-paced rugby without the luxury of replacements had started to take its toll and there were a few tired legs as the third game, against Mandurah, kicked off.

The team were rocked by a few quick tries by The Pirates, coming from their formidable runners.

The Beetles, bolstered by a few ringers from the opposition, dug deep to mount a comeback, and managed to keep their side of the scoreboard respectable.

Ultimately though, the deficit was too great and the marauding Pirates sailed to victory.

A solid start to the season for the U10s nonetheless.

As part of the ANZAC festival, the players congregated after their matches to hear from Vietnam war veteran, Trevor Herbert from Bunbury RSL.

Whilst Trevor’s Ode of Remembrance was spellbinding, it was his contextualisation of the huge loss of Australia’s youth at Gallipoli, in an area the size of a rugby field, that made the ceremony ever the more poignant.

Lest we forget.

Find out more

If you would like to learn more about rugby in Busselton for 5-12 year olds then please contact the club through www.facebook.com/JuniorBeetlesRugby

We are always on the lookout for new players and now is a great time to give it a go.