G’day sports fans.
Castlereagh Rugby League’s First Grade major semi final between the Coolah Roos and Cobar Roosters on Saturday, was the game you have all been waiting for.
And it did not disappoint with the top two teams on the ladder hitting it out to see who would claim the home grand final with our Roosters eventually coming out 22-18 victors.
It was the Coolah Roos’ first year back in the competition and they finished the regular season undefeated and relegated the Cobar Roosters (who have been a top runner in the competition since joining) to the No 2 spot.
The match was to have been played at Coolah however was moved to Dunedoo after the oval at Coolah was deemed too wet to play on.
Both teams came out very strong in Saturday’s game and from where I was watching the game, the Roos were slightly winning the battle in the middle after Cobar had two early injuries with Ashley Davis and Jayden Potts leaving the field. After seeing the change at fullback with Davies’ departure, Coolah put through a grubber kick to open the scoring.
The game was proving to be one of the best this year has provided, with Coolah having options all over the park in attack to which Cobar was returning fire with extremely solid defence.
The Roos’ Chance Burgess got the ball after a 40-20 kick and even our Polynesian boys were impressed with how he powered over the line through the defence to score.
Loma Atuau and Nathan McAndrew started stamping their authority on the game to make hard fought metres for the Roosters and they set the platform for Thomas Plater to put a grubber kick through for Jack Brown to score.
Sione Fakahua caught the defence offside and teamed up with Atuau and Brown to attack but was held up over the line.
In a repeat set Atuau put up the ugliest of kicks to find a flying Fraser Talu who snatched up the ball to score.
Chris Crotty then entered the game and made a big impact on the defensive line.
Tim Hillam and Tristan Everett were making yards when asked and Gerald Mackey busted the defence, which resulted in Talu having space to score again.
This game had some of the hardest hits Country Rugby League has seen since Tommy Good was playing!
The game had slowed slightly with big boys on both sides digging deep in to their reserves to find something else to give their team mates.
In the late stages of the game the score was 18-16 in Coolah’s favour and even though both teams across the park were both out of cookies they still took every run harder than the one before.
With minutes to go, Atuau got the ball from 20 metres out and cut back in to score under the black dot.
Plater successfully converted and with just minutes to go, Coolah was still looking like they had a chance to score.
The vocal Cobar crowded joined in the game willing their soldiers to keep marching forward, which proved to be the difference and they helped to secure a Cobar home grand final in two weeks’ time at Tom Knight Memorial Oval.—Dido
