winger, Haymish McLeod’s point of view.
The Cobar Rugby Union Camels hosted the Nyngan Bulls on a freezing cold night on Friday to contest the Chris Elder Trophy in their Round 7 match of the Western Plains Rugby Union competition.
After a very spirited first half performance, the Camels were eventually taken apart by a fitter and more technically sound Nyngan unit who recorded a 26-7 win to claim the Chris Elder Trophy.
(It was lucky the trophy was retained by Nyngan as they’d forgotten to bring the trophy that they won last year with them, along with their playing jerseys and had to borrow a set of jumpers from the Camels.)
A big positive for Cobar was the availability of 27 players but the endeavours of the coaches to give all of the Camels a run ultimately led to their defeat.
Because of the Camels’ quick rotation of their team members in the first half, the referee then refused any Cobar replacements in the second half.
The 44 year old veteran Steve Gillette, along with a number of other exhausted Camels in key positions, could not be replaced.
Late in the second half the Bulls completely dominated to win the match comfortably.
Nyngan went out to an early lead with a converted try scored after the first 15 minutes of play.
The Cobar Camels then dug in to defend tenaciously in front of a large home crowd.
Time and again Nyngan attacked with well coordinated assaults and looked certain to touch down only to be held out by the steely defence of the home side.
Fijian visitor, Taito Koroi, was outstanding as were Mitch Dunne and Sam Jeffrey.
In fact, right on the cusp of half time, Centre Tyler Coughlan ran in for the Camels’ only try.
Five eight Kody Martin converted for the teams to be level at halftime, 7-7.
The superb effort by the Camels in the first half was soured by the referee’s decision to disallow any replacements in the second.
Hooker Gillette knew he was in for a long night whilst specialist flanker Haymish McLeod found himself locked into the wing position for 40 more minutes, and while McLeod did acquit himself well out there, many of his team mates’ lack of fitness became apparent.
Nyngan’s Welsh import on the wing took the ball 30 metres from Cobar’s line to weave his way through an exhausted defence, beating four lacklustre attempts to stop him to score under the posts.
With the score 14-7 Nyngan Bulls’ way, the visitors continued to attack the tired Camels.
Two unanswered tries to Nyngan realized the fulltime score, 21-7.
There were however many wholehearted performances from within the Camels.
Jordan Bruce continues to improve each week and his effort in the first 40 minutes confirms he is grasping the fundamentals of this new experience, rugby union.
Halfback Ed Paul never disappoints and his defensive effort was impressive.
This was the game that got away.
While there was 17 at training last Thursday, the Camels will lose some more games on the strength of their lack of fitness even though there is obvious talent in that team.
Best and Fairest points went to Koroi (3), Gillette (2), Dunne (1) and Coughlan earned the Bob Bruce Players’ Player $100 award.—contributed
