The Cootamundra Tri-Colours turned around their shaky start to the season at Bassingwaithe Oval on Sunday with a terrific day for the first home game of the season for the tricolours against Condobolin 32 – 17. Not only did the ground and the weather turn it on, but both teams came out firing to start the game. A fantastic home and also a travelling crowd were in for a treat.
A big Condo travelling side put the pressure on the home side early, but the boys’ defence didn’t break once. Condo put plenty of pressure on in attack, but the Coota boys held their line and stuck together in their defensive line.
After about 15 mins on the attack condo had lost control of the ball on 2 different occasions, Coota boys capitalising both times, crowd favourite on return Paddy Cameron with a couple of kicks and a scoop up scoring the first try and then with Coota Winger 11 Aloalii Setu scooping the loose ball up and pinned the ears back for a 60 metre break away try.
Coota’s defence was absolutely sensational in the first half, with Ollie Brabin, Jimmy Hogan, and Paddy being real standouts with their defence.
Coaches Hamish and Jack controlled the game well, pushing the boys around the park with great communication and kicking games. After another runaway length of the field try from our speed demon winger Aloalii, the Coota boys took a good lead of 17-0 into halftime.
The scoreboard definitely didn’t tell the story of the game, with Condo having probably 75 per cent of the ball, but the Coota boys’ defence being too strong and taking their few chances with the ball and turning them into points.
The 2nd half was much of the same with Condo applying pressure, but the strength of the Coota boys’ defence was a real highlight of the day, with the big home crowd getting behind the boys.
The forward pack took their opportunity at the 55min mark with a good controlled drive all the way to the line, the club favourite Cameron Stanley sealing the deal over the line. A well-deserved forward’s try.
As the last 15 minutes hit, the game opened up a little bit, and there was some terrific ball movement and tries from both sides. Rhyley Kennedy’s never say die attitude saw him break a number of tackle attempts to run away under the posts.
As the Condo side started to show their frustrations with the scoreline, the boys kept their heads, focusing on their good defence as the clock ran down.
With the score ending up 32-17, the boys certainly showed a lot of promise for the start of the season, and if they can continue to play like that, commit to their defence and take chances in attack, they will definitely be in for a terrific season.
Coota Rugby said thank you to all the terrific supporters for a fantastic start to home games for the year. Next week they will have the week off to commemorate Anzac Day, and the following week, they will be travelling over to Grenfell.
PLAYERS PLAYER-
Ollie Brabbin
3- Ollie Brabbin
2- Anaru Nepia
1- Paddy Cameron and Rhyley Kennedy
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