THERE's a saying that every underdog has its day and in the case of St Pat's White under 13s coach Tony England, he hopes that day is this Saturday.
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That is when his team will attempt to end the winning run of one of the most dominant teams in entire the Group 10 Junior Rugby League competition.
The Saints will met a Mudgee White outfit aiming for its fifth consecutive grand final win when they run out onto Jack Arrow Oval.
"We absolutely go into the grand final as the underdog, they're an extremely good team Mudgee and it's going to take a lot of work to beat them," England said.
"But the pressure is really on them because they are the guys who are unbeaten now for five years in a row, they haven't lost a game for that amount of time.
"So we go in with no expectations, as long as we play the best game we can we win no matter what. But they definitely carry all the pressure, we happily carry that underdog tag into the game."
Since going down to the Dragons on grand final day last year, the Saints have only faced them once. They lost 12-8 in Mudgee, but England still draws hope from that contest.
They are an intimidating side, but they're not an unbeatable side.
- Tony England
"Absolutely we think we can beat them and that's because every time we do come up against them the margins are very minimal," he said.
"We find that we make one or two mistakes that puts them over the line, that gives them that winning try. So it's just a matter of us remaining clean and getting our game plan right.
"If we do that we can get the better of them, no doubt. They are an intimidating side, but they're not an unbeatable side."
To set up the grand final rematch against the Dragons, Pat's White had to survive last Saturday's preliminary final against club-mates St Pat's Blue. They won that match 18-12.
That came after England's side, who finished the regular season in third, had lost 32-12 to Pat's Blue in the first week of finals then survived sudden death by beating Bloomfield 22-4 in the minor semi-final.
Though minor premiers Mudgee did it much easier, beating Pat's Blue 22-12 in the major semi-final, England feels the extra games his side has played will serve them well.
"We've had a good run, we've had a good season. We've had a couple of losses which have taught the boys some really good lessons and we're on a bit of a roll at the moment," the coach said.
"We're battle ready I suppose because we have played that constant football whereas Mudgee has had a week off, played one week, then had another week off. My belief is a week off is not necessarily a good thing for a team.
"Because all bar one of them was in the grand final with us last year, at least they know what they are walking into and I think one of the big things for us is having it at our home ground, that's a big boost to our boys."
Saturday's grand final at Jack Arrow Oval starts at 11.30am.
