Bears squeak win over Rock

The Bears managed to sneak away from Calgary with a one point victory over the Rock on Wednesday, winning by a score of 31-30 in a game marred by poor play and overzealous officiating. Despite playing nearly half the game with a man advantage, the Bears failed to put their opponents away, giving away 13 unanswered points before a Sean Ferguson try gave them just enough to get the win.

Guiseppe du Toit opened the scoring with a well-struck penalty on eight minutes, before the Rock got something out of nothing as Charles DeBove went through a gap and bulldozed over Jorden Sandover-Best to dot down under the posts. That seemed to liven the crowd, but did little to inspire the participants on the field, as penalty after penalty disrupted play and cheapened the occasion.

Patrick Parfrey was dispatched to the sin bin on a team foul with only 17 minutes on the clock, and Frank Walsh, barely on the field as a replacement, saw yellow after refusing to move from the back of a ruck. Kimi Vunituraga stepped inside the cover defense after a nice half-break from Jeke Gotegote to touch down and bring a close to the half.

A rare moment of clarity came from an attacking lineout just after the break. The ball went wide to Gotegote, and the powerful centre rounded the corner before putting Ferguson into space with a lovely pass. Colin Alexander’s desperation tackle nabbed him just before the line, but his offload found du Toit in close support and the try was awarded.

The Rock had only just returned to full strength when Mike Hamson was binned for a clumsy head-high challenge on Karsten Leitner, and within 60 seconds a quick tap from Sandover-Best put the Bears up by 16 points.

Just when it seemed the game was out of reach, McNicholas struck with a long range penalty, and then the two Paddies combined as Parfrey found McNicholas with a perfectly weighted cross-field grubber, the winger finishing well as he rounded both Leitner and Ferguson to put down the seven-pointer. Another penalty goal followed and the Rock were somehow right back in the match.

Disaster followed as Walsh found the ire of the officials once again, this time for two wild swings heading into a ruck directly in front of the sideline assistant. The referee had no option and brandished a second yellow, which meant red and the veteran prop was off for good.

Within two minutes Ferguson and Owen Parfrey exchanges tries, but only the latter was converted, closing the gap to a single point. The Bears decided to make things interesting as yet more infringements were rewarded with a yellow card of their own to Adam Timler, but the Rock were out of gas and after two long-range penalty attemps sailed wide, the clock struck fulltime with no further scores.

BEARS 31
Tries – K. Vunituraga (40), G. du Toit (45), J. Sandover-Best (51), S. Ferguson (65)
Cons – G. du Toit (51)
Pens – G. du Toit 3 (8, 16, 25)
Yellow cards – A. Timler (72)

ROCK 30
Tries – C. DeBove (14), P. McNicholas (56), O. Parfrey (66)
Cons – P. McNicholas 3 (14, 57, 67)
Pens – P. McNicholas 3 (22, 54, 62)
Yellow cards – P. Parfrey (17), F. Walsh (38), M. Hamson (50)
Red cards – F. Walsh (64)

BEARS
1 A. Luca (J. Braddock 62) 2 A. Lackner (N. Barker 24) 3 C. McClary (R. Ackerman 55) 4 S. Clark 5 C. Morrison 6 T. de Goede (L. Campbell 25-28, HT) 7 C. Kelliher (A. Boyd 54) 8 A. Kleeberger (capt.) 9 J. Sandover-Best 10 G. du Toit 11 K. Vunituraga (C. Stewart 62) 12 A. Timler 13 J. Gotegote 14 K. Leitner (K. Horton 71) 15 S. Ferguson

ROCK
1 A. Forrest (F. Walsh 35) 2 O. Parfrey (capt.) 3 B. Rogers 4 M. Hamson 5 B. Lester 6 M. Heaton 7 C. O’Toole 8 Z. Coughlan (C. Browne 28) 9 T. Pomroy 10 P. Parfrey 11 B. Johnson (T. Rabwi 38-46) 12 C. Alexander (T. Rabwi 71) 13 C. DeBove (R. Law 42) 14 P. McNicholas (S. Lattimore 71) 15 J. Norris

Not used: J. Power, E. Dickie, W. Hill