A very cocky Cobar Under 18s rugby league team put on a great display of football skills at Tom Knight Memorial Oval on Saturday afternoon in their 30-8 demolition of the visiting Gilgandra Panthers side.
Sitting on equal points on the Castlereagh Youth League competition ladder, with Cobar ahead on for and against points, the game was expected to a be good one with Gilgandra going in as favourites after having beaten the Roosters 32-18 last time the two sides met in Round 5 back in May.
You could also have expected the young Roosters to have been a bit rusty as they haven’t played a match for the past month (due to receiving a forfeit last week from Coonamble and a bye the week before), however there was no evidence of that in Saturday’s match as the Roosters exacted sweet revenge on the Panthers in a dominant display.
Dylan Morley opened the scoring early for the Roosters with his try and not long after Ash Davies crossed for a runaway try which Lachlan Ford converted to give the Roosters a 10-0 lead midway through the first half.
The Panthers got themselves on the board shortly after through a try to Grant Millgate to narrow the margin to 10-4.
Just before halftime a mistake by Gilgandra 20 metres out from their line gave the Roosters a good attacking opportunity and then when a Gilgandra player was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes, Marty Turton wasted no time in taking advantage of their extra player.
Turton scooted over from dummy half to score next to the posts and give Ford an easy conversion which put the Roosters ahead 16-4 at the break.
Morley was first to cross in the second half and showed plenty of pace to score his second try of the match soon after the restart.
The Panthers responded with a try down the left side by Liam Smith and, with the conversion again missed, the Panthers trailed 8-20.
Good hit ups by the Roosters halves Tyson Brilley and Ford continuously gained them lots of metres in attack and it wasn’t long before Johnny Best raced over for a try to put the home side further ahead.
Ford’s third conversion had Cobar 26-8 in front.
A late chip kick over the line by Ash Davies was picked up by his brother Brad Davies who scored out wide to give the Roosters their brilliant 30-8 win.
