Blues Spoil the Rams 60th Birthday

The Woden Valley Rams have fallen short at Woden Park against the Queanbeyan Blues 18-16 in the Canberra Raiders Cup.

It was a sea of blue and yellow at Woden Park with the Woden Valley Rams hosting the Queanbeyan Blues for the Canberra Raiders Cup Match of the Round.

With a historic day for the Rams being their 60th club anniversary, the home side was looking to make a statement coming off the back of two straight losses.

While for the away side, they were looking to keep their winning momentum going after their Round Six win against the Bulls.

Both sides came out with strong establishing sets in both attack and defence; with hard-hitting tackles you could hear from the sidelines and the grandstands.

After multiple back-and-forth sets, the Blues claimed the first points of the match after an intercept turned flick pass from Tomas Aoake to Vasi Leota in the corner.

Centre Jamie Mazzarol-Kotz gave the Blues a 6-point lead.

In what seemed like a set-for-set time period, Blues’ Tomas Aoake created a try scoring opportunity on the right edge, but Woden held him up right on the corner.

The Rams used this momentum to create a try-scoring opportunity through Woden’s five-eighth and captain Sean Maloney, with a long pass to Kayne Taws, going over what we thought was clear; however, it was not awarded due to obstruction before the play.

However, the Rams made up for it off the back of a Josh Fattore pass to Woden centre Kaya Ifran to score in the corner. An unsuccessful conversion from Sam Gash saw the home side with four points on the board.

The Blues quickly responded not long after through Eli Tuli after a line break breaking through Woden’s lacking defence to score and extend the Blues' lead by eight.

The scoreline remained 12-4 going into the sheds.

With the Rams looking to get some points on the board in the second half, they came out with a strong attack, but the Blues’ defence right on their try line was just too strong after two scoring opportunities were held back.

But the home side eventually cracked through after ten minutes through prop Caleb Garvey, scoring cleanly right next to the posts. This closed the gap to only a two-point deficit.

They quickly back this up through Rams hooker Kosta Posantizis going over for a try halfway through the second half, breaking through the Blues’ defensive overlap to score straight under the posts on his 100th game for the club to put the Rams in front by four.

A chip and chase not long after by Blues’ Connor Williams saw him break wide open through Woden’s defensive overlap in the middle of the field to pass cleanly to Jack Wilson for him to score in the corner.

This saw the scoreboard with only two points between them leading into the final quarter of the match.

With hard-hitting tackles, strong attack and momentous runs being the main themes of this match, the final score remained 18-16 with the Blues walking away victorious.

The Rams will host the Gungahlin Bulls in Round eight, meanwhile the Blues will return to hosting duties at Seffiert Oval to face the Yass Magpies.