Sydney’s Rams race to the top

The Western Sydney Rams made short work of the Ballymore Tornadoes, securing a third consecutive Australian Rugby Championship (ARC) victory, winning their Round Four contest 25-7 at Parramatta Stadium in Sydney on Saturday.

The Rams rebounded from a slow start, scoring four tries to one in another dominating display that now sees them sharing first place with the Melbourne Rebels on the standings.

Their time at the top may be short-lived, as the third-placed Canberra Vikings cane overtake them when they face the East Coast Aces at the Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast on Sunday.

With their forwards again laying the platform for their young backs to run riot, the Rams looked certain to win by a much bigger margin, the last pass going to ground with the tryline beckoning on more than one occasion.

Kurtley Beale was again outstanding for the Rams, scoring one try and looking dangerous with every touch, while Chris Siale was deserving of a Man of the Match award after scoring a try of his own.

Early on it looked anything like one way traffic for the Rams, who had to absorb a mountain of early pressure as the Tornadoes dominated possession.

The visitors posted first points on 15 minutes through a try to Clinton Schifcofske, the former Parramatta Eel showing good local knowledge on his former home ground to convert from the sideline for a 7-nil lead.

The Rams were struggling to get out of their own 22 however they appeared dangerous each time they entered enemy territory and eventually opened their account through a try to Beale in the 29th minute.

Trailing behind the attack Beale received a late pop pass from Lachlan Mitchell to touch down in the corner.

Beale was in the thick of the action again when the Rams went in for their second just a matter of minutes later, keeping the defence guessing his long ball found Siale who went over again out wide.

Ben Martin missed his second conversion attempt however the Rams had the lead at 10-7 nearing half-time.

Martin made up for his pair of misses just before the break when he scored the Rams third try, sprinting the final 40 metres of a movement that began with a Tatafu Polota-Nau enforced turnover 10 metres from their tryline.

The winger’s conversion made it 17-7 in favour of the Rams at half-time.

The Rams were unlucky to extend their lead soon after the resumption, excellent Tornadoes cover defence forcing Filipo Toala touch in goal when he seemed certain to score.

The Tornadoes were dealt a blow 11 minutes into the half with Wallaby lock James Horwill leaving the field after succumbing to a rib injury.

They then lost David Collis to the sin bin, the fly-half yellow carded by referee Ian Smith for a lifting tackle on Lachie Turner.

While the Rams were dominating field position they were unable to extend their lead, poor handling and execution robbing the home side of a number of clear chances.

The Rams finally bagged themselves a bonus point in the 67th minute of play, replacement centre Rory Sidey scoring with his first touch of the ball after the Tornadoes dropped it cold 10 metres out from their line.

There it finished, the Rams maintaining their top four berth heading into the second half of the regular season.

The scorers:

For the Western Sydney Rams:
Tries: Beale, Siale, Martin, Sidey
Con: Martin
Pen: Martin

For the Ballymore Tornadoes:
Try: Schifcofske
Con: Schifcofske

The teams:

Western Sydney Rams: 15 Lachlan Turner, 14 Ben Martin, 13 Lachlan Mitchell, 12 Chris Siale, 11 Fa’atonu Fili, 10 Kurtley Beale, 9 Joshua Holmes, 8 Tom Egan, 7 Wil Brame, 6 Ben Coridas, 5 Van Humphries, 4 Ben Hand (captain), 3 Aaron Broughton-Rouse, 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1 Ben Alexander.
Replacements: 16 Ben Roberts, 17 Peter Niumata, 18 Marty Wilson, 19 Mark Howell, 20 David Rimmer, 21 Hugh Perrett, 22 Rory Sidey.

Ballymore Tornadoes: 15 Clinton Schifcofske, 14 Elia Tuqiri, 13 Blair Connor, 12 Brett Gillespie, 11 Paul Doneley, 10 David Collis, 9 Will Genia, 8 Leroy Houston, 7 Tom McVerry (captain), 6 Scott Higginbotham, 5 James Horwill, 4 Ed O’Donoghue, 3 Peter Loane, 2 Josh Mann-Rea, 1 Brett Naylor.
Replacements: 16 Geoff Abram, 17 Shon Siemonek, 18 Charlies Wyllie, 19 Ray Stowers, 20 Brendan McKibbin, 21 Tim Sampson, 22 Byron Roberts.

Referee: Ian Smith
Touch judges: George Ayoub, Nathan Pearce
Television match official: James Scholtens
Assessor: Wayne Erickson

With thanks to the NSWRU Media Unit