Once again Brods proved incapable of holding onto a lead and succumbed to a rousing second half display by Rish in a game where the only thing worse than the weather was the combined backlines of both teams.
Brods must have thought it was going to be a derby day victory at long last when they went into half time 3 tries to 1 up following a couple of well worked efforts through the forwards and a fortuitous hack ahead and dot down by the backs. Rish though bagged one of their own following a drive from a lineout on the back of a booming kick by their impressive 10, Josh Kelly, and this was to be the pattern for much of the second half.
With the wind at his back Kelly was outstanding with the boot and asked the Brods to play from their own half, which they tried to do, but with Rish showing more heart and more willingness to put their bodies on the line they stifled the Brods and forced them into errors and poor decisions. A second try and a couple of penalties helped Rish to erode the lead and then forged ahead.
Brods could have won it late on but their unusually ponderous backs conspired to turn what I think was a 7 on 1 into a Rish scrum and from there it always looked like a Rish victory (It may only have been a 3 on 1 to be fair I could not really see as my glasses were mostly useless by this point).
Well done to Rish, should be a good night down Copley way.
