TAMWORTH found a bit of a surprise solution to their midfield dilemma on Saturday.
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With their centre stocks depleted for the clash with Scone, the Magpies threw skipper Harry Veitch in there.
Moving him from breakaway where he has been so damaging was a gamble but it paid off, with Veitch still heavily involved in the game and the Magpies accounting for the Brumbies 27-10.
It was a much-needed win, especially after being run down by Barraba the previous week, and keeps them in touch with the top five.
“It was really good. We’ve had a couple of tough weeks,” Magpies co-coach Mark Daly said.
“We worked very hard on Thursday night on the way we wanted to play.”
The first half was fairly close to script for that, their execution just letting them down a few times.
“The first half was very good,” Daly said.
“We stuck to our game plan and put a lot of pressure on Scone.”
Their reward was a 15-10 lead with the Brumbies scoring a try on the bell to close the gap.
That was as close as the Brumbies would get, although they were hovering within a try until midway through the second half when Tamworth spun it through the hands and found prop Sam Scott skulking on the wing.
Four minutes later Veitch and Pat Strong combined to effectively seal the win for them.
Daly said Veitch trained at 12 on Thursday. They didn’t make the final decision until Friday night and he had no doubt he could do the job, as he showed on Saturday.
“He’s very fast and has got good skills,” Daly said.
“To be honest, he could probably play anywhere in the backline.”
His defensive attributes also played into the decision.
As did their backrow stocks. They are fairly flush for backrowers.
The loose forwards were good.
Daly was also impressed with the back three of Strong, Ben Roughley and Lachie McIntosh.
McIntosh made some scything runs from fullback, and scored a try off one.
Billy Uquhart was also good on debut at half-back.
The Brumbies were similarly-placed to the Magpies heading in and did show encouraging signs for coach Anthony Kent.
Their defence, for one, was a lot better than the previous week.
“Overall, the boys defended well,” he said.
“I was really pleased with it. We’ve worked hard on it.”
They needed to after conceding 52 points the week before.
There is still work to be done.
“We weren’t particularly good managing our first-up tackles,” Kent said.
But they stayed connected in the line a lot better.
Their physicality also picked up.
Paul McTaggart was big for them at breakaway. He’s been performing every week.
Kent also made mention of Richard Thew playing out of position at five-eighth.