Bowral trounced the Vikings 44-12 at Eridge Park, while the Tahs beat cellar dwellers Camden 20-7. The teams, who are both on 33 points, clash this Saturday at Saunders Oval before finishing off their seasons with tough fixtures. Bowral host second spot Shoalhaven and the Tahs take on league-leading Avondale at Avondale. With both teams unlikely to upset the top two sides, the penultimate round game looks set to settle the top five.

Bowral ended the Vikings’ finals aspirations with a thumping eight tries-to-two win on Saturday. The Blacks led 20-12 at the half and put on four unanswered second half tries as the Blueys were kept scoreless. Some paper-thin defence by the visitors saw Bowral run away with the match and record a vital bonus points.

“We needed the five points from this game and that’s what we got,” Blacks skipper Chris Creber said.

“The forwards again laid the platform, they held their position well and stayed on their feet.

“We had good line speed and got up and into them early. We also had fewer mistakes this week.”

Creber, John Dobson and Ryan Lonsdale all bagged doubles but Bowral could have hit the half-century mark if it wasn’t for some woeful goal kicking. Andrew Hindmarsh hit two of six and Andrew Tyson missed two, including one from right in front of the uprights. While the inaccurate kicking was a source of amusement for Bowral’s 1998 premiership winning team in the clubhouse, if they don’t remedy this key area of the game it could cost them if things get close against the Tahs.

For the full story see the Southern Highland News, Monday, August 18

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