The Temora Dragons have moved back into third place on the Group Nine Premiership ladder after a dour 20-10 win over the Tumut Blues at Twickenham Oval on Saturday. In what was an interesting round there were some close results with the cellar dwellers, Wagga Brothers, going close to pulling off the upset of the season to date, finally going down 34-32 to second-placed Young Cherrypickers, while the Junee Diesels snatched a last-minute 22-21 win over the Wagga Kangaroos at Laurie Daley Oval, while the Cootamundra Bulldogs slipped out of the top five after going down by eight points to the competition leaders, the Gundagai Tigers. Although they got the points at Tumut, the Dragons were far from impressive, with too many mistakes spoiling the game as a spectacle, and had they had success with at least fifty per cent of their half chances, they could have more than doubled their score. Some of their tries came on the back of some of their best moves this season, with the ball sweeping across the three-quarter line, with winger Jimmy Stewart stepping his way through the defence to score. This tactic paid off for the Dragons, but they then decided to play up the middle where there was very little success, as far too many times they went back to the bad habits of previous games with "one out football", which was easily contained by the Tumut defence. The inability to finish off promising moves proved costly a number of times, with a high error count frustrating the players as well as the big local support who had travelled to Tumut for the Gala Day in conjunction with the Dragons Junior Club. Temora started strongly and after only 12 minutes they were ahead 10-0. The first try came at the nine-minute mark and came on the back of a Tumut drop out after the Dragons had applied pressure on the host club's tryline. Strong runs by Tyler Madden, Grant Hughes and Hayden Philp laid the foundations for the backs to swing the ball wide where winger Jimmy Stewart finished the move off with a try in the corner. Jake McGovern failed to convert, with Temora leading 4-0. Minutes later it was a Billy Reardon break that led to Hayden Philp being tackled short of the Tumut tryline, but from the play the ball hooker Bailey Wallace dived over from dummy half to score under the posts and, with McGovern having success with his conversion attempt, Temora were out to a 10-0 lead. For the remainder of the first half Temora appeared to have decided they had done enough as the standard of football was badly affected by some ordinary ball handling and poor decisions. As poor ball handling saw a number of promising runs break down, while penalties began to mount. One incident that failed to see the game official halt the action came midway through the half when a Tumut player was heard to be swearing loudly. Temora went into the halfway break without adding to their early 10-0 lead and there was no further addition to that score until nine minutes after the break, with centre Will McDermott on the end of some great ball movement scoring out wide, but again the conversion attempt by McGovern was waved away but Temora extending their lead to 14-0. Both teams had scoring chances from this point on, with Tumut being held up over the line, but it wasn't until the 24th minute that Tumut finally put points on the board. The Blues hooker Jordyn Maher caught the Dragons defence on the wrong foot and was able to dive over from dummy half and, with the conversion, the home side trailed 14-6. Five minutes later the Dragons extended their lead to 20-6 after worked play downfield, with some good football sending Jimmy Stewart over for his second try, which McGovern converted. Tumut wrapped up the scoring with only three minutes remaining, with winger Flyn Debono on the end of a backline move, but with no conversion the game concluded with Temora winning 20-10. The Dragons' standout players were Hayden Philp, who made a number of strong runs, while Brandon Nima was the pick of the backline. In the earlier games Temora had a mixed day. While the Reserves were too strong for the Blues, winning 36-16, the Women's Tackle team let a great chance to score their first win slip after leading 16-0, having to be content with a 32-all draw, with Belinda Nima scoring three tries. The Dragons Weissel Cup team found Tumut too strong, going down 46-6, while Tumut sprung an upset on the Dragons League Tag team with a 22-20 win. Minor Grade Results Reserve Grade Temora 36 Tries: K. Cameron-Pani, D. Robinson, T. Moroney, N. Bett, Y. Veve, S. Carlin, J. McKinnon. Goals: J. McKinnon 4. Tumut 16 Tries: L. Breed, A. Knowles, J. Keenan. Goals: L. Breed, T. Tanks. Women's Tackle Temora 32 Tries: B. Nima 3, S. Tanuvasa, S. Murphy, A. Murphy. Goals: A. Haisell 4. Tumut 32 Tries: P. Malone 2, L. Malone, C. Beddie, J. Sturt, T. Breeds. Goals: M. Day 4. Weissel Cup Tumut 46 Tries: A. Turnbull 2, E. Waits, H. Baker, B. Rossiter, J. Williams, A. Webb, N. Jamieson. Goals: A. Turnbull 7. Temora 6 Try: M. Harper. Goal: Cooper Gersbach. League Tag Tumut 22 Tries: B. Rynehart, M. Beckett, S. Bourne, P. Levitt. Goals: B. Rynehart 3. Temora 20 Tries: M. Pearson 2, E. Perrot, M. McCrone. Goals: E. Perrot 2. Round 9 Group Nine Ladders First Grade Gundagai 14 Young 13 Temora 12 South City 12 Junee 10 Cootamundra 10 Kangaroos 8 Albury 4 Tumut 4 Brothers 3 Reserve Grade Albury 18 Temora 14 Kangaroos 13 South City 13 Young 8 Gundagai 8 Junee 6 Brothers 6 Cootamundra 4 Tumut 0 League Tag Brothers 16 Temora 16 Tumut 14 Cootamundra 13 Albury 10 Junee 9 Young 6 Kangaroos 4 Gundagai 2 South City 0 Weissel Cup South City 18 Brothers 16 Kangaroos 13 Young 11 Gundagai 10 Tumut 8 Albury 6 Temora 4 Junee 3 Cootamundra 1 Women's Tackle Brothers 18 Junee 14 South City 12 Young 12 Temora 9 Tumut 9
