RUGBY LEAGUE
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VILLAGES have opened their Centennial Coal Cup account for 2013 after a comfortable 42-10 win over Portland on Friday night to claim the inaugural Rodney ‘Rocket’ Murray Memorial trophy.
The two teams announced last week that they would make the match a twice-annual event in honour of former United player Murray as well as Portland’s Robert Dowler, both of whom died in the last 12 months.
When the two sides play in Portland later in the season, it will be known as the Robert Dowler Memorial trophy.
Going into the match on Friday on the back of two convincing defeats, Villages were desperate to get their campaign on track. They finally managed to hit their stride though the improved Colts, who have struggled to win a game in the last few years, did make things hard for them at times.
“We started off quite well, but Portland came back at us for a while there in the first half and it was pretty competitive,” United president Dave Smith said.
“We went on with the job in the second half though and put the game beyond doubt quite well. It was a good night all-round, we had a great crowd down at Carrington Park and with the trophy on the line there was plenty of motivation for the boys.
“It was a big improvement from us on what we’d shown in the first two rounds and it was great to get things started finally with a win.”
Smith said Portland had cause for optimism from their performance as well.
“They have struggled for a while, but they’re definitely a better side this year and they really kept at it right to the end, they will win games this season for sure,” he said.
In other results from round three, CSU Blue remain without a win after losing a grand final replay to the Lithgow Bears at Diggings Oval, going down 32-16.
There was better news for CSU Yellow who avenged last year’s minor semi-final defeat to Wallerawang, beating the Warriors 38-22.
Though the result was exactly what everyone expected, the major surprise from the weekend came from the match between high-flyers Kandos and last year’s battlers Orange Barbarians.
The Waratahs had put 60 points on each of last year’s grand finalists in their first two games and already it looked like they could go through the season without even being pushed, but the Barbarians gave a good account of themselves in a 36-16 defeat.