It’s been a long time coming but on Saturday, 30 August, Kiama RUFC made it to the grand final. They did it in spectacular fashion, beating Campbelltown 26-24, in a nail-biting thriller that’ll be sure to go down in local rugby history.

It was the kind of game that’s hard to explain unless you were fortunate enough to experience it first hand. For starters, it was a beautiful, balmy spring day and a huge number of Kiama supporters had made it to the Vikings Rugby Club in Wollongong to watch the first grade battle it out against Campbelltown in a do-or-die semi-final.

Campbelltown, as expected, came out hard and fast, taking an early lead.

Then around ten minutes into the first half, Kiama’s Atu Taufa was tackled and his head got caught, after which he remained laying on the ground. He had had his shoulder injured the previous weekend.

After being assessed, a neck brace was put on and an ambulance called to take him to the hospital. “Taufa was in good spirits throughout,” says Smith.

He also sends a special thank you to the nurse from Campbelltown, who quickly came out on the field to help assess Taufa’s condition and who stayed with him and the team until the ambulance arrived.

It definitely wasn’t the start that Kiama had hoped for. 

Yet, returning to the field, the team played like there was no tomorrow and began scoring try after try, creeping closer and closer on the scoreboard. 

But Campbelltown, a potential final spot in their sights, wasn’t ready to give in and with ten minutes to go, it looked to be a sealed deal.

Unless, you asked the Kiama supporters, that is. “Go Ki! One more try!” echoed around the ground. The team heard the call and kept pushing. With around 1:30 minute left of regular time, Kiama scored a try and had a successful conversion. All of a sudden, it was 26-24 to the Cow’s favour. 

After holding on for the last nerve-wracking minutes of the game, Kiama won and the ground erupted in a sea of black and white – family, friends and fans – all there to celebrate a well-deserved, magnificent and simply put, epic win.

“Yeah, good. Hard game. Tough game. But this is what you want, you want these tough games at this time of the year,” says a moved coach James Patrick.

“I was just happy we didn’t make any mistakes. We’re right on our line and the boys, I’m just so proud of them. Happy over what they’ve done. We got one more game, and against the best team in the comp. 

I feel sorry for the Campbelltown guys because it could have gone either way. And again, I’m just proud of our guys that we were on that side of it. We’re not winning these types of games so it’s very satisfying. I love it.”

The grand final is on Saturday, 7 September, 3 pm at Collegians sports stadium against Shoalhaven. We can’t wait to see you there.

The Kiama second grade fell short against Shoalhaven in their semi-final with 48-26 but congratulations on a great 2024 season!