RUGBY UNION
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HE didn’t get the win he and his Sydney Stars team-mates were hoping for, but former Gunnedah junior Angus Roberts enjoyed his return to bush footy on Saturday.
“I loved it,” the Stars five-eighth said.
“It was great running out to some country music, and kicking to some Garth Brooks.”
The Stars headed into their match-up against the NSW Country Eagles at Ken Chillingworth Oval undefeated but had that run ended by a passionate Eagles side 38-31.
“We were probably our own worst enemies at times giving away penalties and piggy-backing them up the field,” Roberts said.
They came out strongly and threw a lot at the Eagles early but just couldn’t convert pressure into points.
“In this competition you’ve got to be prepared to play 15 plus phases,” Roberts said.
“We probably pushed our hand too much early.”
They finally got some reward for their territory with just under eight to go in the first half with half-back Jake Gordon and number eight Mitch Whiteley working a short side play off a scrum 5m out. The Stars scrum was starting to really assert some dominance by then and right on half-time Whiteley picked the ball up from the back and dived over. Roberts added the extras to make it 16-13 at the break.
The Eagles then skipped out to a 16 point lead after 10 minutes of the first half and for a while it seemed like they had the answer to everything the Stars threw at them, but like they did in the first half the Sydney side came back pretty strongly.
“We always knew we were in it,” Roberts said.
“We had a strong sense of belief.”
They got back to within three with 15 to go on the back of a couple of barnstorming runs from winger Harry Jones.
The Eagles kicked out again through Sam Figg, but Whiteley renewed hope for the Stars of snatching it, crashing over for his second with a couple of minutes remaining.
But they ran out of time in the end.
The loss saw the Stars slip down to third behind the undefeated Brisbane City, who the Eagles play, and the UC Vikings.
The Stars tackle them on Thursday.
“That’ll be a big game,” Roberts said.
The Vikings are undefeated at the moment.
“We’ve got to eliminate the silly mistakes and the piggy backs we’re giving,” he said.