REAL
The Cobar Roosters improved their stand-ings on the Christie & Hood Castlereagh Rugby League competition ladder on Satur-day with a confident 36-17 win over Gil-gandra.
Cobar’s victory over the visiting Panthers in Round 8 of the Castlereagh competition at Tom Knight Memorial Oval on Saturday night puts the Roosters in outright second place be-hind Dunedoo with Gilgandra now relegated to third spot.
After a big day of junior rugby league games and the Ladies League Tag match played be-fore their game, the Roosters and Panthers First Grade match kicked off late on Saturday afternoon and finished close to 7pm under lights.
The two sides were evenly matched for much of the first half and, for the first 26 minutes, neither side was able to penetrate each other’s defensive line.
Loma Atuau dived over for Cobar’s first points which came after a driving run down-field by Cobar’s Best & Fairest player Gerald Mackay, who was pulled up 10 metres short of the try line.
Mackay continued to worry the Panthers defenders all game with his hard to contain attacking runs.
David Watson’s conversion had Cobar ahead 6-0.
The Roosters now had a taste for scoring tries and the scorers could have been kept a whole lot busier had Cobar’s next two tries (another by Atuau and one by Jimmy Neyland) not been disallowed.
The next time the Roosters crossed, with Tristan Everett crossing out wide, the try did count and the Roosters went out to a 10-0 lead.
Roosters’ Players Player, Hooker Tom Plater, opened the scoring in the second half soon after the re-start and Cobar went ahead to 14-0.
The Panthers hit back soon after with a con-verted try before Ben Simon charged over for another try for the Roosters after good lead up work by Plater.
The subsequent conversion by Atuau had the Roosters ahead 20-6 and they continued to control the match until the Panthers broke through again for their second converted try to close the margin to 20-12 midway through the second half.
An inspiring run by Cobar fullback, Ash Davies, who weaved his way up the midfield through 13 defenders and resulted in Ben Grif-fiths scoring out wide on the wing, spurred the Cobar side on.
Pacey winger Jack Brown found some space and screamed down the sideline to almost score but was caught by the Panthers defenders just short of the line.
His hard work however didn’t go unrewarded with Plater finishing it off with a try next to the posts shortly after.
Atuau’s conversion had Cobar leading 30-12.
The Panthers rallied and crossed for their third try to close the gap to 30-16 however Simon hit back shortly after with his second try and Atuau’s successful conversion pushed the Cobar’s leading margin out to 36-16.
Luke Ritchie’s field goal for the Panthers on the final siren saw the final score at 36-17.
Mackey earned best & Fairest three points with two points going to Simon and one to Atuau.
