Kiama are one step closer to making history following their gritty 27-17 win over the Wollongong Vikings on the weekend.<\/p>\n
Played in sloppy, wet conditions, the Vikings were desperate to keep their Illawarra rugby finals hopes alive with a win at home – and came out firing.<\/p>\n
They started strong, scoring two quick tries to take an early lead.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were a little scared at the start. They came away with two tries off the back of some silly penalties from us – which has been the story all year,\u201d said forward Dante Patrick.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we held in there. We were patient and stuck to what we know. We knew that once we got the ball, points would follow. But credit to the Vikings – they were playing for their semi-final spot and put on a great display.\u201d<\/p>\n
After last week’s game was cancelled due to bad weather, there were fears this round could suffer the same fate. Patrick said he was thankful they got on the field, even if conditions were far from ideal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like playing in a big mud puddle,\u201d he said. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t even make out who was on your team and who was on theirs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just tightened up, stuck to our structures, and tried not to force any long passes. It took us a while to adapt, but once we did, it became a much smoother game – although we probably had about 30 scrums due to dropped balls, so that didn\u2019t help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patrick said the high number of stoppages from penalties and errors is proving costly, as the team performs best when the game flows.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to take the game out of the referee\u2019s hands and let it flow a bit more. We thrive in flowing rugby, so if we can reduce the penalties – both ours and theirs – that\u2019s when you\u2019ll see the best of Kiama,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kiama\u2019s first and second-grade sides sit second in their divisions on the Illawarra District Rugby Union ladder with two rounds to go.<\/p>\n
First grade trails ladder leaders Campbelltown by eight points, but has a game in hand. Second grade is just one point behind first-placed Shoalhaven.<\/p>\n
Both sides are hoping to leapfrog their rivals and secure a home major semi-final – something the club hasn’t achieved in over 20 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would be massive for the town – having two grades playing in a major semi at Kiama for the first time in well over 20 years,\u201d said Patrick.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re striving for. But we\u2019ve got to focus on ironing out those faults this week, win these next two matches, and hopefully everything will fall into place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both grades will face Camden away this weekend, looking to move one step closer to that coveted top spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kiama are one step closer to making history following their gritty 27-17 win over the Wollongong Vikings on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-64173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}