With just four weeks of the regular Far North Coast rugby season to play the top-four have been cementing their superiority with a string of big wins over the lower- ranked clubs.
Ballina RUFC sit on top of the table (with 60 competition points) and have only suffered one loss across the season to Byron Bay, three weeks ago. Overall they have a powerful for and against of 718 to 196.
Last weekend they beat Casuarina Beach 76–24 and the week before dominated Lismore RUFC 78–14.
Byron Bay Rugby is the only team to beat Ballina this season and they are sitting in fourth spot on the ladder with 40 competition points.
‘Morale in the team is definitely up and we have always had the belief we could beat the top sides,’ captain Jack Cooke said.
‘Everything seemed to click on the day, the passes went to hand and we made the right decisions. It was great to have a win in front of a big home crowd,’ he said.
Byron Bay is looking good to reach the finals but wants to go all the way, hopefully along with their reserve grade Sandcrabs, who are sitting in third place on their ladder.
‘We are not getting carried away,’ Jack said.
Wollongbar–Alstonville are again having a good season and sit second on the ladder with 56 points and just two losses for the year.
They are also too strong for the lower sides, beating Lismore 71–0 and Banglaow 73–30 over the last weeks.
Lennox Head (48 points) is third on the ladder. They have put three wins together including a 100–0 victory over Southern Cross Uni.
Bangalow sits in fifth place with 30 points and has to play Byron and Wollongbar over the next four weeks.
