The Cobar Bantam Roosters were in sensational form for Sunday’s Castlereagh Rugby League Youth league elimination semi final and easily discarded their Gilgandra opposition from the competition with a 50-4 win.
Sunday’s semi final was the final hurdle for the young Roosters on their way to the 2020 grand final where they hope to defend their 2019 Premiership title.
Going into Sunday’s game, the score was one apiece with Gilgandra having defeated Cobar 16-12 when they hosted them in the opening round of the competition on July 18 but Cobar came out on top in Round 6 on August 22 finishing with a big 48-10 win at Tom Knight Memorial Oval.
The Roosters were in a hurry to stamp their dominance on Sunday’s semi final game and the match was barely a few minutes old when Jacob Christie ran in his first try which was converted by Lochlan Ford.
Christie ran in two more tries during the Roosters win while Ford contributed another 12 points to their tally with another six conversions. (He only missed two long range shots in the whole game.)
While both sides had an equal share of possession in the first quarter, the Gilgandra visitors were unable to penetrate their try line as the Roosters showed great commitment in defence.
The Roosters went to the first break with a
6-0 lead and it wasn’t until midway through the second stanza that Gilgandra’s second-rower Ty Sutherland scored out wide after persistent attack on their try line.
The attempt at the long range conversion was waved away and the score was now 6-4.
Christie however changed that with a midfield break to race away and score his second try under the posts to make for an easy conversion for Ford.
Shortly after star fullback Ash Davies crossed untouched and ran around to score under the posts to make for another simple conversion for Ford which he kicked just after the half time siren.
The Roosters went to the sheds with an 18-4 lead.
It was all one-way traffic with the Roosters shifting into fourth gear for the remainder of the game.
Immediately after the re-start Davies crossed out wide and ran around and could have scored under the posts but chose to pass the ball off to Tyler Coughlan in support.
Coughlan put the ball down to record his first try for the season.
Ford’s conversion put Cobar ahead 24-4.
Soon after Coughlan swivelled out of a tackle and forced his way over to score back-to-back tries (which Ford again converted).
Full of confidence, Coughlan looked unstoppable near the line and he had a hand in setting up the next try when he slipped through the defence and slipped the ball out to his centre Riley Porter in support who
