The Cobar Camels’ Western Plains Rugby Union match against the Warren Pumas on Saturday at Ailsa Fitzsimmons Memorial Oval, may not have gone the Camels’ way on the scoreboard, but it was still a very entertaining game to watch.
Their 64-0 defeat at the hands of the Pumas could not be attributed to the Camels’ lack of effort, determination or even talent, it was just that the Pumas were able to convert many of their attacking raids into points, which is where the Camels failed.
The visitors opened the scoring early with a converted try within the first five minutes and had scored their second 10 minutes later, albeit after a questionable forward pass that was not seen by the referee.
At 30 minutes into the game, the Camels’ pick and drive attack was working well and they looked like scoring their first points, however the opportunity was lost when the Pumas scored against the run of play and pushed their lead out to 28-0.
The Warren team lapped up playing in the wet conditions, while Cobar’s desert rugby side seemed to get bogged down and it showed on the scoreboard.
The Camels also incurred a number of penalties, including a few for a couple of their former rugby league players, who are still not conditioned to release the ball after they are tackled, which hindered some of their attacking raids.
Camels coach Taufao Taufao admits it wasn’t one of the team’s best performances but he said there were still a lot of positives to take away from Saturday’s game.
“Our set plays in the line-outs are starting to get better as we won three against the throw and also never lost a scrum which is another great achievement,” Coach Taufao said.
“We lost a few balls in the rucks but we do have a few new players who have played league most of the time, and it’s fixable with enough time and training.”
Among the Camels’ best players were: Michael Uiva, who earned the team’s Players’ Player honour, while Best & Fairest points were shared by Chris Crotty (3), Matt Bolam (2) and one point each went to Jayden Paul, Mitch Dunne and Lochlan Ford.
