It definitely wasn’t the Bledisloe furnace of AMI stadium Christchurch, and it didn’t compare to Loftus Versfeld or Suncorp on any level. But there was more atmosphere than ANZ as Balmain and Epping ran onto Blackmore Park in Leichhardt yesterday afternoon. Around 2000 fans lined the oval in arguably the biggest crowd to ever see a third division subbies game.
They were there to watch Drew Mitchell and Mat Giteau pull on the black and gold of Balmain. Schmoo and Gits ran on wearing 15 and 10 respectively.
Some might argue this put them both out of position but as Drew made some scintillating rums from fullback and Gits slotted in at inside centre, it did not matter. We’ll never know whether this positional change was a deft coaching ploy to put Epping off guard or simply a lack of jerseys, but I would take a punt that it was the latter.
Balmain had almost all of the ball in the first-half and put it to good use, scoring five tries to one before oranges. It was the first time Balmain has ever had Wallabies playing on their side but the impact was less than expected – especially as they were playing a 13-man Epping side after two yellows were given.
And I think it was probably the only time anyone has ever seen Gits take three men with him in a tackle. The difference between the Wallabies’ and wannabes’ strength was most apparent in contact, as Mitchell also took at least three defenders in almost every tackle.
Gits and Schmoo combined a number of times with QC-esque cut-outs and the kind of backline play we wish we saw more of from the Wallabies themselves.
After the third Balmain try, Giteau took his one and only conversion from in front and was replaced shortly afterwards around the 30 minute mark. Mitchell was called to come off by the ground announcer five minutes later but stayed on the field, only to score within the next two minutes as he ran 50 metres through about as many defenders.
The final score was Balmain 40 to Epping 19 but that wasn’t really the point.
Despite some critics saying they should have been working at a higher level, I think the interest it generated among locals (and especially kids) was well worth it. Almost everyone under the age of 12 seemed to have an autographed shirt and huge grin on their faces afterwards.
Isn’t that really the kind of grassroots interaction we all want to see?
