On Saturday the Pythons travelled to Temora to take on the top of the table Tuskers. With a full team on the park the Pythons started strong with John Grant crossing the line in the opening five minutes and Tom Roth converting gave the Pythons a lot of confidence. With a lot of players playing out of their normal positions it was pleasing to see that the boys stayed strong with wave after wave of attack from a strong Temora outfit.
After the twentieth minute the Tuskers finally crossed the line after a few penalties going their way to even up the score. After some massive defence from the likes of James Wolters, Dan Bowd, Kenny Turnbull and Rob McInnes the Pythons soon turned defence into attack and John found some open space and crossed under the sticks again to give the Pythons the lead 14-12 with only a couple of minutes until half time. Unfortunately Temora scored out wide on the bell to give them the advantage going into half time.
After half time the Pythons were slow to get going and let three easy tries in the opening 10 minutes to let the score blow out. Once the oranges kicked in the boys were on a mission to at least come away with the 4 try bonus point and went back to how they played the first half and were brutal in defence, with Ed Price and Craig McKenzie making some good runs.
To the Pythons credit they scored two more tries through Ed Price and one to Rob McInnes. Final score was 41-26 to Temora who played the game in great spirit and deserved the win.
Points for the day went to 3 points and Players Player to James Wolters. 2 points to Jason Beveridge who played his best game of the year. 1 point to Rob McInnes and Nigel Knight.
This weekend is the Annual Sponsors Day at the oval with the boys hosting second placed Harden, kick off at 3:15pm Saturday.
Save the date for the last home game of the season on Saturday 14th July will be Ladies and Members Day with Claire Bray Catering.
By Adam Nash