Cobar Roosters First Graders Ashley Davies and Tyler Coughlan joined the Castlereagh League representative team (along with Chris Deighton as the team’s sports trainer) on Saturday at the Western Rams trials in Wellington.
Captain/coach of the Cougars, Brad James said “the commitment and attitude were there but the ball security wasn’t!”
The Cougars were however far from disgraced in their matches against Group 10 and Group 11, going down by 12 points in each encounter.
Playing in very hot and steamy conditions at Wellington’s Kennard Park, the Cougars first played against Group 10, with their day getting off to an inglorious start when their opposition raced in for a converted try wide out in only the second minute of play.
However, from that point on the Castlereagh team dominated the game territorially but their inability to hang on to the ball saw them fail to convert that territory into points on the scoreboard and late in the second half the Group 10 side again went wide for another try to make the half time score 10-0.
The second stanza opened far more productively for the Cougars and with six minutes elapsed Castlereagh’s centre, Washie Itoya was able to touch down and they were on the board and in the game with the score reading 10-4 in favour of Group 10.
While the scoreboard had improved for the Cougars, their handling did not, and this most certainly did Group 10’s chances of victory no harm and with five minutes remaining they went in for another converted try to make the final score 16-4.
With the mercury and humidity combining to make conditions not at all pleasant, both the Castlereagh team and Group 11 were keen to complete their on-field commitments for the day and, with minimal time between games, the Cougars were back out on the field.
It would seem that Group 11 were wary of the Castlereagh forwards and the bulk of their attack saw the ball spread wide resulting in three unconverted tries and a 12-nil final scoreline. Once again the Cougars’ lack of ball control didn’t aid their cause.
Obviously disappointed with the results, James was nonetheless very proud of the effort put in by his team, as indeed were all the Castlereagh League supporters.
In summing up, the Castlereagh coach viewed the 2024 trials as a springboard to further Castlereagh involvement in the years to come, recognising the fact that the younger players in his squad gained so much experience from being involved which can only be a good thing moving forward!
Many Castlereagh clubs are now organising trial games in preparation for the 2024 season which will kick off mid-April
