Mudchooks Baled up by Bushrangers
[ Saturday, 13 March 2010 ]

The Bungendore Mudchooks played their first pre-season game for 2010 against the Hall Bushrangers at Hall on 13 March. This is the second time the two clubs have played a pre-season trial game and, as well as being a chance for both clubs to get back into the swing of playing rugby, the winning club is now presented with a perpetual shield. Last year the annual game was won by Bungendore, and this year after a tough competition, Hall were winners by 30 points to 20.

However, the score does not reflect the value of the game to the Mudchooks because the Hall club plays in a higher competition than the Mudchooks. Hall Rugby Club fields two teams in the Monaro First Division competition while Bungendore fields a single team in the Second Division. Therefore, with 45 players available to run on during the game, the Hall club had plenty of fresh reserves to play while the seventeen Mudchooks players who attended found the going getting pretty tough towards the end of the game. Nevertheless, Mudchooks coach Shane Botham was pleased with his team’s efforts saying that “the boys stuck to the game plan while their fitness held and showed some really good team work, particularly in defence.” Botham said that “there is a heap for the team to work on, starting with our fitness, but this game was a good first step to the start to the season.”

The next trial game will be against Gungahlin Eagles Rugby Club’s Monaro First Division teams, so it will be another tough trial for the Mudchooks. The game will be played this Saturday 20 March at Daramalan College with a 12pm start time and with the format being 3 x 20min periods.

The other pre-season games to be played this year by the Mudchooks are the Palerang Shield v Braidwood at Captains Flat on 27 March, v Cooma at Bungendore on 10 April and the Monaro knockout at ADFA on 17 April. The season proper starts for the Mudchooks with a home game v Harden on 8 May.