The Cobar Camels travelled to Coonam-ble by bus with only 12 men on Saturday for their Round 9 Western Plains Rugby Union game.
While some players had to work it appears that the Duck Creek Races at Nyngan were more attractive to a number of other players.
The 12 who travelled all played above them-selves and, at the half-time bell, were only behind 24-17 and still in the game.
The five Cobar supporters who travelled to watch the match were unanimous in declaring the Camels’ performance on Saturday as their “best all season”.
Their commitment to each other and their steely resolve to walk away at full-time victori-ous was extraordinary.
These 12 players must surely form the nucle-us of the Camels for the remainder of the 2022 season on ability and commitment.
In Saturday’s game, Coonamble scored an early converted try but the Camels dominated in the forwards before prop Jayden Harvey smashed his way over the Coonamble line.
Coonamble scored again, being able to uti-lize a constant overlap to have the score at 14-5.
In the meantime, half back Jay Ellison con-sistently broke down Coonamble’s attack with some smashing defence.
Unfortunately, Winger Tyson Brilley was carried off with a knee injury.
The Camels were reduced to 11 men but a Coonamble bench player ran on for Cobar (contrary to his coach’s direction).
Cobar’s backline defence was outstanding with Kody Martin, Brandon ‘Chucky’ Jones and Jacob ‘Ping’ Ryan ably supporting Ellison.
Martin broke the Coonamble defence and with the ball kicked through, Lochlan Ford won the race to the ball to score.
After a similar move, Ford again won the race to the ball and scored his second try to bring the margin back to just two points, 17-19 in Coonamble’s favour.
In the second half the Camels were finally found wanting by Coonamble’s sheer weight of numbers however Ford continued to be a danger as he tried to vary the play and to use his exceptional pace.
The Camels forwards stuck to their task and matched Coonamble in both forward confron-tations and the line-out.
And what a revelation Mitchell Dunne has been at hooker! The once aspiring breakaway has accepted that he can serve the team far better by turning up every week as hooker.
Harvey took the game by the throat from the first kickoff and lead by example all match.
The remaining forwards also played above themselves.
The final score was in the area of 59-17 but the Cobar players and supporters left Coonam-ble with a sense of satisfaction.
The Bactrians also fielded a team against their Coonamble hosts on Saturday.
They played to their ability but were defeat-ed 13-1 by a strong Coonamble side.—Peter Payne
