Bunnies had hard-fought win

The Umina Bunnies claimed a "hard-fought" win over the Woy Woy Roosters in the first local derby at Woy Woy Oval on May 16.

Umina club secretary Mr Ian Sonter said the local game had "much in common" to the Bunnies first grade win in June 2004.

"Both games saw the Bunnies skip away to an 18-nil lead over their more fancied opponents and both established match winning leads before the oppositions fight back," Mr Sonter said.

"The boys led 42 to 26 (40 to 14 in 2004) before easing off the throttle and letting the opposition to run in two late converted tries for a final score of 42 to 38.

"Meanwhile, after being down 10-nil, the Woy Woy second grade recovered just after halftime to 10-all.

Mr Sonter said the open graders learnt a "valuable lesson" about the need to concentrate on the game for its entire time.

"The Bunnies were well in control but the opposition never gave up and with under five minutes to go, the Roosters hit the front 24 to 20.

"The way the Bunnies were playing, it was game over.

"But the Bunny spirit rose and, with one final attacking raid, a try to Adam King converted by Shannon Sharpe after the siren gave the Bunnies a lucky 26 to 24 win to take them to equal top of the table.

"Copybook tackling displays from Paul Casey, Mick Byrnes and Scott Young were a highlight of the game.

"The old saying, 'they can't run without legs' was never better demonstrated than by these three."

Website, 18 May 2010 Ian Sonter, Umina Beach RLFC