The Cobar Roosters out-muscled the Gilgandra Panthers to record a comprehensive 54-26 victory in their Castlereagh Youth League match at home at Tom Knight Memorial Oval on Saturday.
The visiting Panthers struck first with a runaway try in the fourth minute, but from that point on it was the Roosters who controlled proceedings.
Cobar responded immediately after a goal-line dropout, with Jaxon Burke weaving through the defence to score.
Brennan Auckett added the conversion to level the scores at 6-all.
Burke was also heavily involved in the Roosters’ next try just two minutes later.
He produced a thrilling three-quarter-length-of-the-field run before being dragged down just short of the line.
From the ensuing quick play-the-ball, Jackson Muldoon crossed for a try and Auckett’s second successful conversion gave Cobar a
12-6 lead.
Not long after, Jack Dunn crossed out wide and Auckett landed a sensational sideline conversion to extend the Roosters’ advantage to
18-6.
Aiden Swan was next to score as the Roosters continued their dominance, touching down for the first of his three tries in the match.
Soon after, Will Oborn scored a converted try to push the margin out to 30-6.
The Panthers worked their way back into the contest just before half-time after the Roosters conceded multiple penalties close to their own line.
Gilgandra crossed to reduce the deficit, leaving Cobar ahead 30-12 at the break.
Soon after the restart, Swan powered over for his second try, forcing his way through multiple defenders.
Auckett’s conversion attempt narrowly missed.
Six minutes later, Swan completed his hat-trick after the Roosters stripped the ball from the Panthers 15 metres out.
Swan again proved too strong, barging over despite the attention of several defenders.
His conversion extended Cobar’s lead to
40-18.
Another Panthers error soon led to more points for the Roosters.
Aidan Hyland stripped the ball 25 metres from the try line before racing away to score under the posts, and then calmly converted his own try.
The Roosters continued to impress with some textbook running rugby league.
Slick passing movement sent the ball wide to Ryan Mugugia, who outpaced the Gilgandra defence and dived over in spectacular fashion.
His conversion attempt was unsuccessful.
Drew Barton crashed over for a late try to round out the Roosters’ scoring, before the Panthers added an unconverted try in the final minute to leave the final score at 54-26.
