The Cobar Roosters First Grade team kept their cool to win their Barwon Darling Cup minor semi final 44-30 against Bourke on Saturday.
Played at Tom Knight Memorial Oval in front of a very vocal crowd, Cobar opened the scoring with a try by Brandon ‘Chucky’ Jones to which Bourke replied soon after with their own converted try. The two teams continued to score tit-for-tat for the remainder of first half and they went into the sheds at half time with the score locked up at 18-all.
Jedd Noonan and David Watson ran in Cobar’s other first half tries with Robert Childs’ converting all three.
Bourke came out firing after the break and scored two runaway tries in quick succession to give them a commanding 30-18 lead.
The momentum now seemed to be in the visitors’ favour however the Cobar side kept their heads and continued to play a controlled game which paid big dividends.
Workhorses Ben Simon, Watson and Tom McBride were doing a sterling job in attack and defence trying to create opportunities for their backs.
Chris Deighton was held up just before the line and Watson was held up over the line before the Cobar try scoring floodgates opened.
Captain Tim Hillam crossed first and was followed in quick succession by Jones, Deighton and Watson. Hillam then sealed Cobar’s win just two and half minutes before full time with his second try.
Childs converted three more times to give Cobar a well deserved 44-30 win.
The Under 18s received a forfeit from Brewarrina and so both Cobar teams will progress to the finals this Saturday in Walgett.
