INVERELL co-coach Simon Clarke was encouraged by what he saw from his outfit at the Armidale Knockout last weekend where the Highlanders finished runners-up in the cup going down to St Alberts (2) 19-10.
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The students put on all the early pressure, which they eventually turned into points from a 5m scrum about 15 minutes in to lead 5-nil at the break, but the Highlanders levelled early in the second half and thought they had a second not long after but were ruled to be held up.
It proved to be a turning point.
From the scrum they spilled the ball virtually straight into the arms of one of the Albies players.
They counter-attacked and a couple of minutes later scored up the other end.
True to form the students were potent outwide and crossed again to make it 19-5 with eight minutes to go.
The Highlanders hit back from a penalty quick tap after a good break down the short side from Hunter Barnett on a scrum play but couldn’t close the gap any further. They are regulars at the knockout and got four “full-on” games out of it.
“It’s been a good weekend,” Clarke said.
“It’s a good way to break into the 15-man a side.”
They had a bit of a “thrown together” side – a mix of first and second graders, new faces and a few Robb College boys, who helped them out on the Sunday after they picked up a few injuries on the Saturday.
One of those was to Clarke’s co-coach this year Chad Makim.
“Chad’s put his hand up and is keen,” he said about last year’s skipper.
They have had a few players move on between seasons.
“Tala Vea has retired,” Clarke said.
They’ve also potentially lost their player of the year from last season in Hugo Radford.
On the plus side Luther Robinson has returned.
“He’s been playing rugby up in Brisbane,” he said.
“He’s a really good signing for us.”
“We’ve got the makings of a decent squad again.”
“We’ve just got to get them to
training.”
Hopefully with the cricket and touch seasons over that will help. They’ve hindered their numbers at training a bit, not that Clarke is too worried.
“We’re not panicking about numbers,” he said.
“We’ve still got a bit of preparation time.”
They’ve still got over a month until the season kicks-off.
The pre-season focus has very much been on fitness.
“That’s what we’ve been pushing mainly and doing the fundamentals right,” Clarke said.
Most of the players were also involved in the sevens competition, which the club ran last month.
“The sevens was a good success,” Clarke said,
“We had 10 teams this year, which is two more than last year.”
And not just rugby teams with the Ashford Roosters coming up trumps overall.
They’ll get another chance to get a bit more footy in the legs this weekend in the Croppa Creek knockout.
The tournament will involve teams from Bingara, Warialda, Moree, Croppa Creek and Goondiwindi.
Clarke is looking at possibly one other trial game before they take on Tamworth in the opening round.
