Round 5 saw the Bugs up against Rawhide - a group of experienced campaigners vying for their first win of their debut BPL season.
Given the teams’ relative ladder positions, the Buggers were due for a plain sailing evening, but Tony Ross forgot to give his men the script as Rawhide shot out to a 2-0 lead. When the Buggers awoke they managed to even the scores 2-2 through patient working of the disc and dumps to advantage as practised the previous week at training.
Rawhide counterattacked though and crept to 5-3 lead. This prompted the Bugs to employ a puppy fence in a bid to thwart hucks to breaks from the back of the Rawhide stack. The tactic proved hugely successful in stopping the downfield pass and preventing significant gain in field position. Buggers took half 8-5. The Buggers’ momentum continued through to the second half. On offense, Mat Ryan was too quick for his opponents, scoring multiple goals from a well-structured stack.
The O team also used a horizontal stack which created many passing options (quite a few through the centre corridor) and moved the disc quickly across field to good effect. Also the swill-to-Neild option proved successful on a number of forward thrusts.
A creditable performance from Rawhide, but not enough to deny the Buggers the three points as they got up 15-9.
By Micka Kanowski
