Southern Inland Rugby 2025

[Up the Jumper]

Final update of Odds for Saturday's Grand Finals in 1st Grade Men & Women

Men's- Wagga City $1.80 & Wagga Waratahs $1.90

Women's - Griffith $1.90 & Wagga Waratahs $1.90

 

[Up the Jumper]

WAGGA CITY V WAGGA WARATAHS - Grand Final Preview

Saturday’s Grand Final is a unique one for a couple of reasons.

Minor Premiers Wagga City go into Saturday’s decider having lost their last two Grand Finals against the same opponents Wagga Waratahs and on both those occasions City were undefeated during the regular season but for some strange reason brought probably their worst performances of those seasons to the 'Game that Mattered'

Wagga Waratahs are chasing a hat trick of titles which is a very notable achievement and what will be more notable is that they have won the premiership by losing the Major Semi to City and then coming through the Preliminary final on each occasion.

The only change to the script so far this season is that Waratahs managed to defeat City in a competition round and in doing so released City from owning the ‘undefeated tag’ before tomorrow’s Grand Final.

In looking at the stats for both these teams this year I took into account their results against each other during the year including the major semi- final as well as the results for both City & Tahs against both Tumut & Griffith (other semi- finalists). I didn’t take into account City & Tahs results against Ag College who were a fair way off the pace this year compared to previous years and there was obviously no need to take into account the results against Wagga Reddies & Albury in 2025



Wagga City – played 7 won 6 – points differential +109

Wagga Waratahs- played 7 won 5 – points differential +66



City had the better points differential but the interesting stat was the defensive record of both teams in those numbers which revealed City conceding 179 points during the season to the teams listed above and Waratahs conceding 189 points.

A big statistic on looking at predicting premiership winners is their defensive record and whilst City have that advantage there is no significant difference between those two totals.

Whilst City did have the loss they probably needed during the year it still doesn’t take that much pressure off them heading into tomorrow’s decider.

Those ordinary performances in 2023 & 2024 against their opponents tomorrow hit their supporters hard and they definitely deserve a better 80 minute effort from the City players tomorrow or there may be some early departures from Conolly Rugby Park trying to avoid another collapse under pressure.

The other thing City need to get into their heads is that it’s much easier to defeat your opponents with 15 players staying on the field for the entire 80 minutes than it is to have 14 and sometimes only 13 players doing battle against the opposition.

In each of the three matches contested by both these teams this year City have had one of their players RED Carded during the match and whilst they still won 2 of those matches their overall Discipline from the 1st minute of tomorrow’s Grand Final until the end of play must be at the highest level possible or else Waratah’s goal kicker Lachlan Day will kick the Blue & Whites out of the contest and consign the City players and their supporters to another off season of what might have been and where did we go wrong.

Waratahs will no doubt be confident of their chances and if they are ‘injury free’ from their physical battle with Tumut last Saturday they obviously pose a big threat to City tomorrow.

They (Waratahs) don’t have many weaknesses and are a well oiled machine on their day and are at their best when capitalising on opposition mistakes and counter attacking very quickly on turnover ball.

Both teams match up pretty evenly in size, speed and the ability to offload the ball in heavy traffic and both fullbacks Steve Tracey (City) and Lachlan Day (Waratahs) are very dangerous on the counter attack and broken field running.

I can't make a selection on this decider because nothing really stands out as a factor in favour of one of the teams and also I can't pinpoint any major inability when comparing both sides.

I'll go a 22 all draw and extra time required but neither team to break the deadlock.- Joint Premiers

Bill Castle Medal Winner (Best & Fairest) - Tyler Byrne (City) or Tom Murphy (Waratahs)

GRIFFITH V WAGGA WARATAHS - Women's Grand Final Preview

The Griffith women caused the upset of the season when they brought Waratahs undefeated run for the year to an end a fortnight ago in the Major Semi Final.
Griffith were more clinical in attack and their defensive line was hardly breached by the Waratahs ball runners in that 17-10 win by the Blackettes.
Whilst Griffith earnt the right to proceed straight through to tomorrow's Grand Final the Waratahs women needed to overcome a game Wagga Ag College outfit at Griffith last Saturday which they did comfortably.

Waratahs were missing Georgina Hayes in the major semi final against Griffith and her return to the team last weekend and tomorrow is a big boost to the minor premiers.

Waratahs had the measure of Griffith in their 2 competition round games with a 59-20 win in Round 3 in Wagga and a 26-19 win in Round 8 in Griffith.

Both sides play a very entertaining style of game and ball handling will be crucial tomorrow as dropped passes in Grand Finals can be very costly.

I'm tipping Waratahs to reverse their semi final loss a fortnight ago and win tomorrow's Grand Final by a margin of less than 12 pts

Alicia Quirk Medal winner (Best & Fairest)- Unaisi Buadromo (Griffith) or Amy Fowler (Waratahs)

Good luck to all Clubs participating tomorrow as well as the Match Officials - lets hope for some exciting Rugby and keenly contested Grand Finals tomorrow.

 

[Maulalltheway]

WAGGA CITY V WAGGA WARATAHS - Grand Final Preview

Saturday’s Grand Final is a unique one for a couple of reasons.

Minor Premiers Wagga City go into Saturday’s decider having lost their last two Grand Finals against the same opponents Wagga Waratahs and both those occasions City were undefeated during the regular season but for some strange reason brought probably their worst performances of those seasons to the 'Game that Mattered'

Wagga Waratahs are chasing a hat trick of titles which is a very notable achievement and what will be more notable is that they have won the premiership by losing the Major Semi to City and then coming through the Preliminary final on each occasion.

The only change to the script so far this season is that Waratahs managed to defeat City in a competition round and in doing so released City from owning the ‘undefeated tag’ before tomorrow’s Grand Final.

In looking at the stats for both these teams this year I took into account their results against each other during the year including the major semi- final as well as the results for both City & Tahs against both Tumut & Griffith (other semi- finalists). I didn’t take into account City & Tahs results against Ag College who were a fair way off the pace this year compared to previous years and there was obviously no need to take into account the results against Wagga Reddies & Albury in 2025



Wagga City – played 7 won 6 – points differential +109

Wagga Waratahs- played 7 won 5 – points differential +66



City had the better points differential but the interesting stat was the defensive record of both teams in those numbers which revealed City conceding 179 points during the season to the teams listed above and Waratahs conceding 189 points.

A big statistic on looking at predicting premiership winners is their defensive record and whilst City have that advantage there is no significant difference between those two totals.

Whilst City did have the loss they probably needed during the year it still doesn’t take that much pressure off them heading into tomorrow’s decider.

Those ordinary performances in 2023 & 2024 against their opponents tomorrow hit their supporters hard and they definitely deserve a better 80 minute effort from the City players tomorrow or there may be some early departures from Conolly Rugby Park trying to avoid another collapse under pressure.

The other thing City need to get into their heads is that it’s much easier to defeat your opponents with 15 players staying on the field for the entire 80 minutes than it is to have 14 and sometimes only 13 players doing battle against the opposition.

In each of the three matches contested by both these teams this year City have had one of their players RED Carded during the match and whilst they still won 2 of those matches their overall Discipline from the 1st minute of tomorrow’s Grand Final until the end of play must be at the highest level possible or else Waratah’s goal kicker Lachlan Day will kick the Blue & Whites out of the contest and consign the City players and their supporters to another off season of what might have been and where did we go wrong.

Waratahs will no doubt be confident of their chances and if they are ‘injury free’ from their physical battle with Tumut last Saturday they obviously pose a big threat to City tomorrow.

They (Waratahs) don’t have many weaknesses and are a well oiled machine on their day and are at their best when capitalising on opposition mistakes and counter attacking very quickly on turnover ball.

Both teams match up pretty evenly in size, speed and the ability to offload the ball in heavy traffic and both fullbacks Steve Tracey (City) and Lachlan Day (Waratahs) are very dangerous on the counter attack and broken field running.

I can't make a selection on this decider because nothing really stands out as a factor in favour of one of the teams and also I can't pinpoint any major inability when comparing both sides.

I'll go a 22 all draw and extra time required but neither team to break the deadlock.- Joint Premiers

Bill Castle Medal Winner (Best & Fairest) - Tyler Byrne (City) or Tom Murphy (Waratahs)

GRIFFITH V WAGGA WARATAHS - Women's Grand Final Preview

The Griffith women caused the upset of the season when they brought Waratahs undefeated run for the year to an end a fortnight ago in the Major Semi Final.
Griffith were more clinical in attack and their defensive line was hardly breached by the Waratahs ball runners in that 17-10 win by the Blackettes.
Whilst Griffith earnt the right to proceed straight through to tomorrow's Grand Final the Waratahs women needed to overcome a game Wagga Ag College outfit at Griffith last Saturday which they did comfortably.

Waratahs were missing Georgina Hayes in the major semi final against Griffith and her return to the team last weekend and tomorrow is a big boost to the minor premiers.

Waratahs had the measure of Griffith in their 2 competition round games with a 59-20 win in Round 3 in Wagga and a 26-19 win in Round 8 in Griffith.

Both sides play a very entertaining style of game and ball handling will be crucial tomorrow as dropped passes in Grand Finals can be very costly.

I'm tipping Waratahs to reverse their semi final loss a fortnight ago and win tomorrow's Grand Final by a margin of less than 12 pts

Alicia Quirk Medal winner (Best & Fairest)- Unaisi Buadromo (Griffith) or Amy Fowler (Waratahs)

Good luck to all Clubs participating tomorrow as well as the Match Officials - lets hope for some exciting Rugby and keenly contested Grand Finals tomorrow.

Good luck to all involved tomorrow. Should be 4 cracking grand finals

Go well

 

[Up the Jumper]

Southern Inland Rugby Union - GRAND FINAL RESULTS​

1st grade​

Waratahs 30 d Wagga City 24

Women's​

Waratahs 19 d Griffith 14

2nd grade​

Wagga City 28 d Hay 26

3rd grade​

Wagga City 24 d Reddies 10

Well done to the winners yesterday and commiseration to the Losers.
All the deciders except 3rd Grade were very keenly contested with the losing teams having their chances in the last 5 to 10 minutes of each Grand Final to snatch victory.

Both City & Waratahs took home 2 premierships which clearly showed how they both dominated the SIRU Competition this season.

The City 1st Grade team showed plenty of determination and courage yesterday to fight their way back from 10-27 down with 15 minutes or so to go but their inability to obtain a handy lead at half time over their opponents with a gale behind their backs came back to bite them.
Well done to all the various Referees and match officials for their contribution to the day.

3rd