The Cobar Roosters First Grade side came up against a very physical Bourke Warriors team in Round 3 of the Barwon Darling Cup competition on Sunday at Tom Knight Memorial Oval.
The Cobar side was subjected to some pretty rough play with two Bourke players spending time in the sin bin on separate occasions for swinging arms and kicking in a tackle.
Referee Jacob Ryan, who was refereeing his third game of the day, did well to control the match which, at times, became quite heated.
Play see-sawed from one end of the field to the other with Bourke’s sustained pressure on Cobar’s line eventuating in first points.
The conversion by Craig Orcher gave Bourke an early 6-0 lead.
It was the only time in the match that Bourke was to have the upper hand with Cobar soon replying with a try to Forward Troy Knight who barrelled his way over the line to score.
Rob Childs’ conversion, his first of five for the game, levelled the scores at 6-all.
With Tom McBride, Ben Simon, Ethan Black, Chris Deighton and Knight doing a powerhouse of work in attack and defence, it wasn’t long before Deighton dived on a loose ball and scooted over to put the Roosters ahead.
Isaac Kershaw then made the most of a Bourke error, collecting up the ball in the confusion and running 30 metres to score under the posts.
An exciting passage of play just before
half time saw Bourke almost score however Cobar held tight to go to the break with an 18-6 lead.
Immediately after the re-start Bourke made the most of the Roosters’ poor discipline in defence and scored through an overlap on the wing. This was despite Bourke being a player down with one still in the sin bin from a first half infringement.
Play once again see-sawed from one end to another and Bourke looked set to score again before it was intercepted and Cobar took possession. Black took on the biggest of the Bourke opposition on his charge to the line and, after bouncing off him, Black dived over to score under the posts. Childs’ elementary conversion gave Cobar a 24-10 lead.
Deighton soon after crossed try cross in the corner late in the game pushed Cobar’s lead out to 34-10.
Bourke rallied to score three late tries in six minutes however the Roosters hung on to claim a 34-28 victory. Best and fairest game points went to Bourke’s Craig Orcher with two points awarded to Deighton and one to Black.
Roosters coach Ben Trudgett said his side played extremely well for the bulk of the game.
“The forwards laid a good platform, our defensive line speed was good and we shut down a lot of second phase play well.
“It was disappointing that some errors late in the game cost us points.
“To Bourke’s credit they scored 16 points in last six minutes and had we not been in front like we were could’ve cost us the game,” Trudgett told The Cobar Weekly.
Cobar heads to Walgett to play the Newtown Wanderers this weekend.
