Blues into premiership decider

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DAVID WEINER

TWO dashing Dans woke the Blues from their gold medal hangover and rescued the Maccabi Rugby Club from finals elimination with a sizzling match winning try in their 18-17 preliminary final victory over Clovelly.

The win earns the side a rematch with Manly Savers in this weekend’s grand final.For 70 minutes, the Blues looked destined for the finals scrap heap as the competition heavyweights struggled with a side they beat by 83 points earlier this year.

But when the elusive Daniel Munitz found himself in space deep in the match, with his side down by six points, the fleet-footed winger beat his man and chipped towards the in-goal. Super-sub Dan Ezekiel gave Clovelly’s full-back a 15 metre head start, but mowed him down to ground Munitz’s inch-perfect kick.

Steve Cohen then stepped up and delivered the clutch conversion, from just inside the touchline, to the relief of everyone involved in the Maccabi Rugby club.

“They were really down and out – gone,” coach Andrew Hendry reflected. “They got the wake up call they needed in that first game [in the 16-14 finals loss to Manly], and if they didn’t … they probably wouldn’t have had the will to beat Clovelly. To have that belief to keep throwing things at them says a lot for the team’s character. That was very pleasing.”

It looked like it was going to be one of those days for the Blues, who leaked three tries down their left edge defence in the first half. They had to play from behind for most of the match, going down 7-0 early, while trailing 11-17 from late in the first stanza until their late winner.

Munitz was a shining light for the Blues, grabbing the side’s first-half try with a trademark jinking run, which came from an equally impressive Cohen cut-out pass.

Cohen’s deadly boot kept the side in touch on the scoreboard, but it was plain to see this was not the same hard-hitting, free-flowing Blues, who were also making too many “unforced errors”.

Nevertheless, the side was still in the contest. They had Yoni Sonnabend to thank for a superb covering tackle midway through the second and when Clovelly bottled two seemingly straightforward penalty goals, you could sense that the Blues might just get away with it.

Enter Munitz, Ezekiel and Cohen, who set up a nail biting final few minutes as they held their one-point lead. Tony Been’s crunching defence ended one Clovelly goal-line onslaught, and there was a serious heart flutter when it looked as though Clovelly had piloted a field goal, but it proved it was to be the Blues’ day, as the referee waved it away.

The win sets up another chance for Maccabi to not only go one better than last season, but to get one back on Manly – just like they beat Great Britain at Maccabiah after a first up loss.

“We’ve got form losing to a team and coming back a few weeks later and beating them,” captain Al Lehrer said. “It’s a sense of d√©j√† vu and it would be a fantastic end to the season to win the club competition.”

Lehrer admitted that the side has found it difficult “picking themselves up after such an emotional high”, but the “sense of occasion” is now beginning to build ahead of the weekend.

“There’s a feeling that momentum is going to snow ball,” he added. “We’ll be in as good a mindset as ever to win this weekend.”

Maccabi tackles Manly this Saturday at David Philips Field, corner of Gwea and Banks Avenue, Daceyville. Kick-off is at 3.00pm. Entry: $10.