The Cobar Roosters Under 18s made a brilliant start to their 2019 Castlereagh Rugby League season with a dominant display against last season’s premiers, the Coonabarabran Unicorns, at Tom Knight Memorial Oval on Saturday.
In front of a large home crowd and in very warm weather, the young Roosters trounced the visitors 60-12.
The Bantams were impressive, especially in attack, and continuously made metres every time they touched the ball.
The Cobar boys got off to a flying start and the game was barely two minutes old when Man of the Match Lachlan Ford crossed out wide to open the scoring for the Roosters.
Hamish McLeod added their next points with a try near the posts; Ford crossed again; Zeb Coughlan fended off a couple of opposition and tip-toed up the sideline to further extend Cobar’s leading margin.
Johnny Best carved his way through the centre to sprint 60m and evade the Unicorns’ fullback to score under the posts; Braith Good muscled his way over a try; Ford dived over from dummy half for his third try and Chris Crotty picked up a ball nicely toed over by Good to score right on the half time whistle.
Ford’s fifth successful conversion put the Roosters up 42-8 at the break.
The scoring slowed marginally after the restart as the mercury reached the early 30s.
Tyson Brilley recorded a double, Seb Best touched down for a try and Ashley Davies gathered in another nicely weighted kick from Good and strolled over untouched to score the Roosters’ final try in their 60-12 win.
Club Best and Fairest points were earned by Johnny Best (3), Ford (2) and Crotty (1).
