GROUP 10 have made light work of their Group 14 rivals in the first round of the NSW Country Tier 2 Championships, winning 50-18 at West Wyalong on Saturday.
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Played at Ron Crowe Oval, Group 10 were simply too strong, taking a 20-point lead into half-time and then going on with it in the second period to rack up a half century and progress to round two in style.
However, Group 10 coach Dave Elvy believes the score line wasn’t a true indication of how hard his side was made to work by their Castlereagh-based opponents.
“If you look at the score it looks like we’ve done it comfortably. But we did it pretty tough out there,” former Bathurst Panthers captain-coach Elvy said.
“We did enough, but we’re going to have to improve a lot against Group 9.”
Group 10 raced out to a 24-0 lead early in the piece, but with injuries to half Matt Stott (sternum) and wrecking ball Kyle Cochrane (ankle) forcing the Mudgee pair from the field, Group 14 hit back.
They scored twice before the break and were in the contest after half-time too thanks to a poor completion rate by Group 10.
But with 15 minutes to go, Group 10 hit their straps and ran away with the convincing victory.
“The last 15 minutes we didn’t make a mistake and we ran in a few tries. When we held the ball we looked really dangerous,” Elvy said.
Elvy praised the efforts of his captain, Hawks lock Todd Barrow, along with Panthers forward Kean Peard, Pat’s Wade Judd and CYMS trio Terawhiti Cooper, Tim Bassmann and Kurt Beahan.
He said the forwards laid a strong platform for Group 10.
“TC [Cooper] went well up front. Both props actually, Juddy [Wade Judd], too,” he said.
“And Todd, he really played well as captain. He and Kean got through a lot of work in defence and attack.”
Group 10 now travel north to Narrabri to take on a strong looking Group 9 side that accounted for Group 16 with ease.
Elvy believes this Saturday’s game will be his side’s toughest test.
“Group 9 are always considered the best group,” he said.
“They have a few country [NSW Country] players and I saw a little bit of their game today and they have a big pack and some pace out wide.
“It’ll just come down to completions. I think today we only completed around 60 per cent of our sets. We need to get that up around 80.
“If we give away the ball against Group 9 we’re going to make it hard for ourselves.”
Elvy would not rule out both Stott and Cochrane making the trip to Narrabri.
“I think we’ll stick with the same squad. If everyone can get through tomorrow’s [Sunday’s Group 10] matches injury free then it’ll be the same 17,” he said.
