WESTERN FORCE MEDIA RELEASE

Saturday, 15 August 2015

NEDLANDS WIN BOOKS PLACE IN GRAND FINAL

Pindan Premier Grade – Semi Final

Nedlands 41 defeated Cottesloe 23 at The Foreshore, Nedlands

By Luke Worthington

A two-try effort by fullback Dylan Loveridge has helped Nedlands secure their ticket to the 2015 Pindan Premier Grade grand final, following their 41-23 semi-final win over Cottesloe at the Foreshore today.

A back-and-forth first half saw Nedlands enjoy the majority of possession, but it was Cottesloe who took a 16-5 half-time lead. Nedlands bounced back in the second half, and after trailing 23-12 in the 45th minute, put on three unanswered tries to stamp their victory, putting the minor premiers one step closer to a premiership season.

Nedlands coach Luke Doherty said he was pleased with his side’s ability to regroup at half time and come back out to seal victory.

“Cottesloe brought a lot of intensity in the first half, and put our guys on the back foot,” he said.

“We regrouped at half time, and we had a chat about where we could improve and to the boys’ credit they did.

“It was a big loss last week having Ru [Michael Ruru] getting suspended for this week, but I thought Michael Botes did a great job.”

Cottesloe drew first blood with Charl Nieuwenhuis scoring two early penalties  to give his side a 6-0 lead.

Nedlands responded through Ben Titiko, who received a perfect offload to run down the sideline and touch down in the right hand corner to trail by one point.

Cottesloe responded with another Nieuwenhuis penalty before they further extended their through Antini Brown, who received an offload on the sideline from Tobias Hoskins before planting the ball down. Nieuwenhuis obliged with the conversion to give the Gulls a 16-5 advantage on the half-time whistle.

The second half saw Nedlands come out firing, attacking aggressively with dynamic try-scoring prop Joseph Richie busting through a tackle to break the line to score his third try in two weeks. Juan Pretorius converted to narrow the home side’s deficit to 16-12.

Cottesloe responded in dramatic fashion, with Tobias Hoskins breaking through the Nedlands defence, running across the goal line and grounding the ball directly under the posts with Nieuwenhuis putting the visiting side up 23-12.

Neddies then mounted their comeback by finding an unlikely mismatch on the wing, when blindside flanker Danny Hartwell found Anuru Rangi down the left wing. Rangi powered through the last man in the defence, placing the ball past the chalk. The missed conversion attempt saw the score sit at 23-17.

Loveridge then crossed for his first try of the day, finding an offload on the right wing, which allowed him to break the line, swooping across the field to score directly under the posts. This set up an easy conversion attempt for Pretorius to give Nedlands the lead for the first time, 24-23.

Loveridge backed his effort up with another try, again breaking the line of defence and swiftly running down the field, to extend the lead to 29-23.

Nedlands continued to make a statement to the visiting side, with Pretorius continuing his strong contribution to the match by scoring a try in the corner, and flyhalf Jesse Toto diving over the top of a pack in the 80^th  minute to send ‘Neddies’ to the Pindan Premier Grade decider on the back of a 41-23 win.

Nedlands will face the winner of tomorrow’s second semi final between Wests Scarborough and Kalamunda at Bennett Park.

Nedlands 41 (Dylan Loveridge 2; Joseph Richie, Anaru Rangi, Jesse Toto, Juan Pretorius, Ben Titiko tries; Juan Pretorius 3 conversions) defeated Cottesloe 23 (Antini Brown, Tobias Hoskins tries; Charl Nieuwenhuis 2 conversions, 3 penalties)