It was a multi-coloured-card day for the Reef Raiders rugby union team on Saturday at the Sports Complex, who also suffered the ignominy of being soundly beaten 47-17 by Brothers RUC Cairns.

Their troubles began in the 21st minute when scrumhalf Rory McHugh was yellow carded (10 minutes in the sin bin) for answering back to the referee. And 10 minutes later, after constant warnings from the referee for not rolling away from the ball in the ruck, Hugh Carey was shown the red card leaving the Raiders with 14 men for the rest of the match.

It was a match the Raiders will want to forget in a hurry. Yet, at one point, they were in striking distance – trailing 21-17 in the 26th minute of the final half – but an inability to capitalise on their possession, poor handling and tackling and a disorganised midfield proved to be their downfall.

Brothers put the first points on the board in the 17th minute with a converted try. This was followed by two further converted tries. Raiders replied with a try by Theo Ryan on half-time, giving the visitors a 21-5 lead at the break.

Raiders hit back and had an encouraging start to the second half when Ryan and McHugh scored, one of which was converted by Chase Hay, closing the gap to 21-17. But the Brothers countered and crossed over for four more tries and the match was sealed.

With only seven forwards, the Raiders had a clear disadvantage and although many of the Brothers’ forwards were tiring towards the end, the Raiders were still unable to match them upfront or counter their backline attacks.

Besides the yellow and red cards, the Raiders were also hit by injury and lost key playmaker Adrian Bannerman with a leg injury early in the match. There’s work to be done, and lessons to be learnt from this game.