Barbarians season ends on a low

Poor discipline and mental errors cost the Cableforce Bunbury Barbarians a victory in their last game of the season with Wests Scarborough running out 26-21 winners at Leschenault Reserve on Saturday.

In a frantic opening 15 minutes the visitors stole a soft try after a breakdown infringement to jump out to a 5-0 lead.

Not long after the Barbarians gave up another easy try with the defence failing to slide quickly enough to shut down a Wests attack.

After the score jumped out to 12-0 the home side found its groove, Jamie O‘Dea running hard and straight and the returning Bryan Thomas and evergreen Derek Hunter showing that the Barbarians front row was to be respected.

Securing clean ball, captain Jack Meadows was able to launch more and more darting raids against the tiring Wests team to score the home sides first for the day and then put Luke Du Preez into a hole to give the Barbarians a 14-12 lead at the half.

In a game of big hits and no backward steps it was inevitable that discipline would be key factor in deciding the outcome and 20 minutes into the second half Bunbury let themselves down.

After a penalty for hands in the ruck the home side was slow to get back on side and the visitors did not hesitate to scramble over for the go ahead try.

The Barbarians went on an all-out attack to try and regain the lead but it came back to bite them when a wayward pass was intercepted and the Wests’ half back was able to run 80m to put the margin out to 12 points with less than five minutes remaining.

As the clock struck full time Meadows was able to release Zion Vale for his first try in senior rugby to narrow the final deficit.

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