RUGBY UNION
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THE New England opens’ success highlighted another competitive Country Schools Championships from the Lions and Central North sides.
While the Lions took out the opens title, the Kookaburras were 10 seconds off beating eventual Don Wiburd Shield (U16s) winners Far North Coast.
They won their opening game 17-5 against Mid North Coast and were then leading Far North Coast 24-22 with only seconds remaining.
“In the last 10 seconds they went in from a loose ball on our feed on the scrum,” co-coach Wayne Devine said.
They then came out and beat New England Sunday morning.
Devine and coach Stewart Prowse found it hard to single out any particular players, and were really happy with the way they gelled as a team.
Their first run together was Saturday morning.
“Defence-wise they were outstanding,” Devine said.
Their line defence especially.
“We just had New England on our line five times and they didn’t cross,” Devine said after Sunday mornings win. “Against Far North Coast we were pretty much defending the whole second half.”
That really laid the platform.
The front row was also outstanding.
“The first scrum of the tournament was pretty ugly,” Devine said.
That was a symptom of not being used to having contested scrums.
“They really suffered from the fact that in the Central North competition they’ve been decontesting the scrums a lot,” he said.
They got better as the tournament went on.
The backline was also great in attack and defence.
“We’ve got a very versatile and fast backline,” he said.
Prowse said the side gelled well and he was “very proud of the team”.
“They played exceptionally well except for that one hiccup,” Prowse said.
“We had seven boys picked in the country run-on side, which is a great effort.”
Hayden Griffiths (Farrer), Nic Sorenson (Farrer), Hayden Sheppard (St Catherines Singleton), Alex Wall (Carinya), Nick Wilson (Calrossy), Ben Caskey (Holy Trinity Inverell), Harrison Hall (Carinya) won Country Schools selection while Hayden Sheppard has also been selected in Country Development Squad to tour East Coast America next April.
The Lions 16s lost their four games but acquitted themselves well.
“The boys came out with good intent just a few fundamental errors let them down,” co-coach Mitch Pardy said after Saturday’s two losses.
“When we did hold onto the ball we constructed and scored some good tries.
He said against Central North the second half the boys played a lot
better.
They only conceded the one try.
“They started to play better as a team and were a bit more committed to the physical contest,” he said.
Their last game was against Far North Coast.
Pardy said they started really well but after an injury break for about 10-15 minutes they conceded three “pretty soft” tries.
It was still a good effort from a young side.
Max Alcorn, Tom Gall, Braden Graham and Jayden Harradine were their best performers for the weekend.
The Kookaburras opens only won the one game but played extremely well, co-coach Bernie Williams said.
Their opposition just played extremely well too.
They had a few setbacks. They had to call in another half back the day before the championships and then lost five eighth Elliot Jones 10 minutes into the first game.
That hurt them, Williams said.
They missed that general and weren’t able to generate enough in attack.
“The outside backs when they have had a little bit of ball have looked dynamic,” he said.
“Happy with how the forwards have travelled. They’ve been good at the breakdown and defensively have been outstanding.”
He said their best game was probably their first against New England.
Their win came in their last game against Far North Coast.
“They really played well as a team,” co-coach Andrew Burke said.
“They played a lot of running rugby and were able to get it out to the backs.” Angus McIntosh, Adam Duncan, Ryan Witherdin, Zac Johns, Nick McCabe, Brayden Grehan, Sam Hunt and Ryan Prentice were all strong over the weekend.