Maccabi Rugby – Tries galore in Maccabi victory

MACCABI Rugby Club emerged from a high-scoring and entertaining round-13 away match against Macquarie Uni with a handy 47-34 bonus point win last Saturday afternoon. It was their sixth win of the season, keeping them in seventh spot in the merged fifth and sixth division, 11-team competition, with one regular round left. While Maccabi will miss the Jeffrey Cup semis between the four top teams, they’ve secured a spot in the Meldrum Cup semis between the next four highest-ranked sides. The win over Uni will give them some confidence, especially in attack, but club captain Josh Hoffman wasn’t overly thrilled. “We would have preferred to not let in so many tries at the end,” he said, adding, “It’s important we show up for one another for the full 80 minutes.” Most of Maccabi’s seven converted tries were scored in a dominant first-half onslaught over their bottom-placed opponents, built on big tackling early by Josh Naiman and his willing fellow forwards, Josef Tal Baron’s pivotal influence and the speed of outside centre Adam Amoils, who burst into a hole to score the opening try. With the game’s result seemingly wrapped up at half-time, Maccabi opted to rest a few players and bring on some promising youngsters off the bench from their Horizon Pathways program, including year 11 student Jayden Haimovitch, who scored a great try. Maccabi hosts first-placed Georges River in the last round this Saturday at Burrows Park, Clovelly, with a 3.15pm kick-off and a sausage sizzle for all the fans.

Credit AJN