The Keech Australia Fighting Miners were narrowly defeated 17-24 by the Maroondah Griffins in last Saturday’s rugby union clash.
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The Miners started the game with one reserve on the bench and then lost skipper Blake Theunissen because of a shoulder injury. Yellow cards to Alex Liliva and Ryan Spedding in the first half also left the Miners short-handed.
Maroondah took advantage of its numerical supremacy and by early in the second half raced to a 17-3 lead.
However, the Miners showed great resilience to get back into the game.
Siaosi Palelei sliced through to score between the sticks. McDonald’s conversion reduced the deficit to seven points. Some weak defence allowed the Griffins to get back to a 14 point lead.
The Miners had the better of proceedings late in the game, but could only manage a converted try to Liliva.
The Manchester Arms player of the day award went to centre Philip Keech.