Ryan Kiely woke up on Saturday morning, looked out the window and was instantly reminded of home.
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The temperature was low, the skies grey and the rain falling. It was exactly what Kiely experienced regularly growing up in New Zealand, except he's now living in Canberra.
The weather had the loose forward excited to take to Jamison Oval on Saturday afternoon for Wests' clash with Queanbeyan.
The ground held up surprisingly well, however the match played out exactly as Kiely expected. With the rain falling, the contest quickly became a tight, physical grind with points hard to come by.
The No.8 looked to have secured the Lions a victory when he crossed in the second half to put his team up 14-7.
Wests, however, couldn't close out the game and the Whites lifted their game in search of an equaliser. Eventually Mitchell Douch crossed with less than 10 minutes remaining before Brendan Jimenez landed the conversion from the sideline to level the scores.
The kicker had a chance to win it for Queanbeyan moments later, however a long-range penalty goal attempt fell short.
Kiely left the field with mixed emotions, Wests feeling the match was one they let slip.
"[The weather's] a little bit like when I was back at uni in Dunedin," Kiely said. "It was pretty sloppy, probably not as muddy and a bit more grass about.
"It was expected to be a dog fight against Queanbeyan, especially in these conditions. Overall we had to defend for a good majority of the game, two easy tries got away from us and we didn't really capitalise on our opportunities.
"We're pretty disappointed, we wanted the run home into finals to be four wins, but it is what it is."
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Kiely moved across the Tasman after graduating from the University of Otago in 2016 to work as a sports scientist in biomechanics at the Australian Institute of Sport.
The loose forward quickly fell in love with the ACT and opted to remain in the capital to study a Masters of Physiotherapy at the University of Canberra.
Since then he has volunteered for Sense Rugby, a charity set up by former Australian sevens star Jesse Parahi to introduce sport to children with disabilities or developmental delays.
Kiely experiences both the advantages and disadvantages of combining physio with footy and does his best to avoid self-diagnosis on the run.
"It has it's ups and downs," he said. "Having a lot of boys tap you on the shoulder at training for a few tips can get a bit annoying, but at the same time I love it, it puts the two passions together, so it's pretty fun."
Saturday's draw was the Lions second of the season and sees them sit fourth on the ladder with four rounds remaining.
Wests have opened up a seven-point gap on fifth-placed Uni-Norths, with Queanbeyan two points further back.
The Whites recognise they face an uphill battle to climb into the four and defend their title, however have received a major boost with Robbie Coleman returning to the field in recent weeks.
Queanbeyan coach Tim Hawke was pleased to see his team fight back to secure the draw on Saturday but said they must start winning if they hope to play finals football.
"It was better than a loss," Hawke said. "We came here confident we could get a win and we went close. We had plenty of opportunities, we got down into their 22 enough times to score more than two tries, we just couldn't get that part of the game right.
"We [made the finals from a similar position] last year. Mathematically it's probably a little bit more difficult what we've done to ourselves this year, but we've done it in the past so that's the plan. Follow the same road home this year."
ACT Rugby Round 13
John I Dent Cup: Wests 14 drew Queanbeyan 14, Vikings 39 bt Uni-Norths 12, Gungahlin 52 bt Penrith 10
Premier XVs: ViQueens 10 bt Uni-Norths 8, Penrith 34 bt Gungahlin 5
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