The Cobar Roosters First Grade, Under 18s and women’s League Tag teams made a good showing in their first matches of the 2018 Castlereagh Rugby League competition at Gulgong on Saturday.
The Bantam Roosters kicked off the day with a hard fought 16-12 win over their Gulgong hosts which was followed up by a convincing 38-12 win by the Roosterettes in their League Tag game.
However the Roosters First Graders couldn’t pull off a first round trifecta and were beaten 40-22 by Gulgong.
Henry Brookman was a stand-out in attack for the young Roosters in the Youth League scoring one of Cobar’s three tries.
Johnny Best and Marty Turton also crossed for the Roosters and Best and Tyson Brilley kicked one conversion each.
The Cobar side was also well served in attack by Bradley Davies and Patrick Hallcroft with Turton and Ash Davies strong in defence.
Coach Jacob Good said the team’s defence was outstanding throughout the game.
“Both Ash Davies and Brad Davies showed great skill throughout the game.
“It was great to see 13 boys tough it out for a full game without any subs and come up with their first win of the year,” Good said.
The playing experience of Roosterettes representative players Lisa Travis, Jenna Fullagar and Zoë Harland served the Cobar team well in their match with Gulgong on Saturday.
Travis and Fullagar both crossed for two tries each while Harland was instrumental in putting team mates Tyler Chiswick, Taylah Good and Peta Woods over for a try each.
Harland kicked five from seven conversions in the match.
Roosterettes’ player/coach Bianka Jacobson said the team worked very well together in their first official game of the season.
“And being persistent in attack is what got us over the line,” Jacobson said.
“Gulgong had a great defensive first half and made us work for points.
“During the second half the girls focused on completing sets and plays and this showed on the score board.
“Lisa Travis had a great attacking game and talk on the field was second to none.
“Zoë Harland’s talk from the back in defence was exceptional and she was strong in attack and defence throughout the game.
“Taylah Good ran great stacking lines and Peta Woods worked well in attack and also ran strong lines,” Jacobson said.
The Cobar First Grade side was matching their Gulgong opposition with just one converted try the margin at the half time break, but ultimately it was the Roosters’ poor defence that let them down.
The Gulgong Terriers capitalised on a number of missed tackles to score a couple of long range tries and won the match 40-22.
Tim Hillam, Chris Deighton, Kody Martin and Tristan Everett were responsible for the Roosters’ tries with Robert Childs successfully converting three of his four attempts at goal.
Cobar’s best attacking players were Deighton, Ben Simon and Ben Trudgett with Hillam, Jed Noonan and Everett their best defenders.
