THE Snowy River Bears have been victorious in their opening round of Group 16 Rugby League competition taking down Snowy mountains rivals the Bombala Blue Heelers in electric fashion.

The boys played very well, we completed sets and defended as we had trained, Bears President Rob Freebody said.

“Everything worked quite well for us in our opening round, Bombala were understrength though, they were missing about five players over the first and second grade squad.

The Bears went into round one with plans of completing sets and playing disciplined football but conceded the first try of the match scored by Blue Heelers’ centre Bailey Rogers after 10 minutes.

Conceding early was all but a distant memory after 13 minutes when Bears winger Maika Rovouvou crossed for a four pointer.

Bears winger Ravouvou crossed eight minutes later for his second try and the flood gates were just about open.

The Bears crossed again after 32 minutes before winger Akuila Masima Masima piled on more pain in the thirty sixth minute.

Rovouvou was our players player of the match and all in all it was a good team effort said Freebody.

“The score didn’t reflect the game, Bombala played well starting fast and stuck in there despite being short with only two reserves.”

“Winger Aquila Asima Asima scored a sensational 70 metre try and forward John Field also played well.”

Bombala hit back through second rower Liam Beazley to give the Blue Heelers some hope just before half time but a double from Dean ‘the jet’ Wilson and John Field, as well as a third and consequential hat trick of trys from Rovouvou in the second half saw the Bears kick clear.

In the race for Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2024, John Field received 3 points, Adam Walters 2, and Maika Rovouvou 1.

The Snowy River Bears Reserves travelled to Tathra for their opening round of football, and it was always going to be a tough trip with Tathra last year’s reserve grade premiers.

Reserves started well scoring two early trys said Freebody.

“Our momentum took a big hit when some ill-discipline saw one of our players sin binned for 10 minutes,” Freebody said.

“Tathra spread the ball well through their backline and scored out wide against a 12-man defensive line.”

We played very well in the last twenty minutes but ultimately couldn’t pull it back going down 38-18.

MVP points went to Tristian Hamilton with 3 points, Tupou Ahomee 2 points, Keelan Johnson 1 point, Joshua Dyball 1 point, Dyball was also players player.