THE Griffith Black and Whites' season has sunk to a new low after being humiliated by Yenda to the tune of 94 points in one of the most lop-sided Group 20 clashes ever.
It was a procession for the entire game as the Blueheelers turned on the fireworks and produced some sparkling examples of attacking rugby league to see the score near the century mark, with the final siren at the 70-minute mark putting the home side out of their misery.
"We didn't expect a big score like that, but we went on with the game and just played footy, we didn't jump to any conclusions. We just got on with our job," Yenda coach Andrew Lavaka said.
"Every time we got the ball we scored, but I kept telling my boys to keep their heads switched on because the Black and Whites never gave up and they lifted their game in patches.
“But we just wanted to work on a few things which worked and we had a lot of good moves.”
The Yenda leader raved about debutants Trey Woodland and William Hannon, who performed the rare feat of crossing in his first game in the top grade.
Griffith co-coach Steve Parr admitted his patched-up side was “embarrassed” by the result and said they will try and pick up the pieces as they try and break through for their first win of the season.
“Half the boys had to back up (from reserve grade), and I said to a couple of the guys that we’re probably too young for first grade we just had to make the most of what we had,” Parr said.
“We didn’t do our best and that was plain to see, but the biggest disappointment was with the reunion. We had a lot of old blokes there, I wasn’t disappointed in their effort because they were out there trying, but they were just better than us.”
The writing was on the wall early when Nui George crossed inside the two-minute mark. The score blew out quickly to 24-0, with the game almost over as a contest in the first 15 minutes as Yenda continued to score at better than a point a minute.
In past games when the Blueheelers have run away with the game early complacency has set in, but there were no sign of it from the men in blue and white as they continued to punish Griffith.
Halfback John Lavaka scored a spectacular 80-metre solo try to seal the game before the break with a staggering 54 points coming in the first half.
Making matters worse for the Black and Whites was the sin-binning of Warren Lloyd. The Blueheelers made the most of the numbers advantage with Andrew Ngu’s damaging run signalling the second stanza would not be any easier for the home side.
Hannon crossed for his first try in the top grade to make it 60-0 with the game almost becoming farcical when the next kick off, which was aimed at George, was returned by Kolo Lomu who scored his seventh try in the past fortnight.
Soon after, Yenda unbelievably won the feed from a scrum allowing Sione Siale to cross to put his side within reach of the century mark, and when Lomu deliberately crossed in the corner and converted his own try, the Black and Whites’ humiliation was complete.
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