MATT Waterford and the NSW Country Cockatoos assembled in Toowoomba on Friday to prepare for a showdown with fierce rivals Queensland Country.
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The two sides meet each season to play for the Battle of the Borders Cup, with the Cockatoos to go into Saturday’s match as the defending champions.
“We won it last year, but only just,” Waterford, who manages the Cockatoos, said.
“It is a traditional grudge match and we have been priming ourselves up for it. It is a game we are expecting to win and hoping to win.”
Before he retired from club rugby with the Bathurst Bulldogs, Waterford played in plenty of matches against the Queenslanders.
Though he will watch on from the sidelines on Saturday, he is just as eager to win now as when he was pulling on a Cockatoos jersey.
“I’ve played in heaps of these games, I love them. You always want to beat Queensland,” he said.
“We have played three games together now and this is our final game, we are raring to go.”
The Cockatoos head into the match on the back of a 31-17 win over NSW Suburban last Saturday in the Maher Ross Cup.
It was was the biggest winning margin in the six-year history of the cup, with Dubbo’s Filisione Pauta scoring the opening try for Country.