Saturday afternoon marked the Gunning Roos annual Ladies’ Day, but the matches were marred by controversy and numerous injury scares, one of which resulted in an ambulance being called to the ground.
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Both the men’s and the women’s matches, which were played between Gunning and Harden, returned one-sided results.
The Gunning Rooetts began their match against the Harden Hawkettes at 12:50pm, and were eventually drubbed 52-0.
The men’s match began at 2:00pm, and finished in much the same way, with the Roos going down in a spectacular 84-0 defeat.
However, both sides were hit hard by player absences, and men’s captain Tom Johnson expressed his displeasure with the team members who didn’t make the match.
However, club president Kathy Johnson said that, despite the results, the Ladies’ Day went well.
“It was a very good day,” Johnson said.
“We wanted to get the grandparents and the players’ wives and girlfriends involved.
“It’s still a community club, that’s what it’s all about.
“We do [get a good turnout], they keep coming back.”
The men’s match began innocuously. Harden scored an early try, but Gunning fought back and seemed to be on a relatively even keel, before Matthew Curry went down behind play.
It was unclear what exactly had happened as Curry was not in the midst of the play, but a bad tackle put him down with a suspected neck injury.
Medical staff rushed onto the ground as the ambulance was called, and when it arrived half an hour later Curry reported that he was feeling better.
However, the interruption seemed to rattle the Roos, and with Curry gone, they only had one player available on the bench.
This forced the home side on the back foot for the rest of the match, and while they played valiantly and at times pressed Harden, the match slid steadily in the Hawk’s favour.
As the Roos’ dwindling players became injured and exhausted, the Hawks began scoring tries nearly every set in the second half.
“Unfortunately today wasn’t Gunning’s day, both men and women, but we’ve got a lot of players out injured,” Johnson said once the men’s match was concluded.
“Harden’s a very classy act, so we knew it was always going to be a hard game.”
On Monday afternoon, the Gunning Roos put up a post on Facebook confirming that Curry was not seriously injured and thanking everybody for their support and well wishes.
