Junior Rugby Gala at Quirindi

By Fiona Killman

THE weather was ideal and the rugby was better than ever at the Quirindi Gala Day on Sunday, July 31.

Scone Junior Rugby Union teams made the short trip up north, keen to continue their success and provide entertaining rugby for spectators. As the season progresses, the skills and confidence the players are showing is inspiring.

Scone is set to host the next Gala Day on Sunday, August 14 at Bill Rose Sports Complex.

The Club is looking forward to welcoming all the teams in the Central North competition and playing some solid rugby.

Under-10 Scone Blue – Angus Patterson

A gala day less than an hour away, you ripper.

A beautiful day greeted us for the annual Quirindi Gala Day.

Scone Blue got a tough draw, drawing the 2 big guns of Narrabri and Moree with the unknown of Coonabarabran for our third game.

With some withdrawals a quick reshuffle was needed and the lads were away.

To their credit it didn’t worry them and the team played some great football to come away with three wins.

A combined 21 tries for and only 2 against showed how much of an effort the lads put in today.

A forward pack that consisted of Shiv, Tommy, H, Hamish, Nugget and Matty hunted as a group and played some really smart football in and around the rucks.

Shiv Porter is getting more and more structure with his cleaning out each week while the consistent attack and defence of H, Matty and Hamish is proving the difference week in week out.

Tom’s consistent work inside the breakdown is winning us untold ball in the 50, 50’s.

I’m not sure if it was the sun shining or the lush green pastures that we played on, but Nugget had the best Gala Day I have seen him play.

Out third halves combination in three weeks saw Max and Henners combine well with both players calling the moves but having the ability to play what was in front of them.

Our centre pairing of Coop and Kael produced some outstanding tries with both players crossing the line on numerous occasions with some magic weaving runs.

A wing pairing of Gussy and Gillo did their job well with Gussy continually chasing the ball and putting pressure on the ball runner.

Young Gillo set up two tries and is improving from week to week. Fair play to the lads.

Under-10 Scone Gold – Luke Gallagher

Scone Gold took on hosts Quirindi in their first game and after a slow start took control with some terrific work at the ruck by Rourke Sharpe, Blake Grimes and Charlton Hall.

This gave the backs all the room they needed and Will Officer and Cal Winter took full advantage with several strong runs leading to tries.

The second game saw a committed effort against Gunnedah from the outset with excellent commitment at the breakdown by the smaller loose forwards Alex Bishop, Hugo Firth and Sully Brooker maintaining possession through multiple phases.

Straight running by the forwards, including a strong charge up the middle by winger Ben Officer, allowed inside backs Sasha Studdy and Nick Gallagher to control the game nicely with some pleasing interchanges of play between backs and forwards leading to some great team tries.

The final game against a very big Tamworth side was straight after the previous game and the boys soldiered on willingly with massive games from Henry Hubbard and Charlie Mitchell seeing us lead at half time but continuous games took their toll with the boys going down by 1 try after a fantastic effort.

Two wins and a tight loss was a great result for the boys who have really stepped up at training and are starting to get the rewards for the effort they have put it all season.

Under-8 Scone Blue – Evan Geary

Scone 8’s travelled to Quirindi with 21 players last Sunday, the largest contingent we have taken away all year.

Split into two teams, Scone Blue took on Narrabri, Walcha and Quirindi.

Scone and Narrabri went try for try in the opening minutes with both sides ignoring the extra width allowed by the expansive field trucking it up through the middle.

Tries to Archie Adkins, Monty Ward-Thomas and a couple to George Patterson kept Scone in touch.

The boys finally broke the deadlock late in the game with another couple to George and a maiden try to young Lachie Carter who has been toiling away all year and going from strength to strength in his first year of rugby.

Protein must be easy to find on the Highveld with Walcha fielding a sizable pack in the second game.

Walcha had the boys on the ropes with a five to two score at half time but with a little soul searching and magic water at half time the boys came out firing and put on three quick tries to get back in the match.

Big defensive efforts from Hamish Davidson and Tom Riordan along with evasive running from Cormac McClean and Rory Moore kept Scone in the game until Lindsay Geary could force his way over the line with grit and determination in the last play of the game to give Scone the win.

Other tries to Jet Boots Ward-Thomas, Hammer Time Riordan and Hitman Davidson.

Archie Adkins got a double and Lach Carter went in for his second.

The last game against the hosts was a little bit one sided with the boys running in nine tries against a young Quirindi.

One try to Tom, two to Monty and three each to Lindsay and George, Lindsay should have had a fourth but his ball security let him down dropping the ball over the line.

The open game saw a few good passes being strung together and if you have ever watched Under-8 rugby you will know this is a very rare thing.

Special mention to Jason Lighezzolo who played hard all day in defence and attack but didn’t get a try this week.

Jason’s work at the ruck is to be commended with some very unselfish cleaning out going on that his team mates were able to turn into points. We are all looking forward to Scone in a fortnight.

Under-8 Scone Gold – Tor Killman

Scone Gold was champing at the bit ready for the kick off whistle against Armidale.

With Armidale low in numbers for the first game, Jock McCosker, Ted Saunders and Flynn Killman showed great sportsmanship to change jerseys and help Armidale.

The three boys revelled playing against their team mates causing havoc around the paddock, leading to Jock crashing the try line.

With tries to Lucas Grimes, James Hannaford, Copper Nicholl, Laurie Roche and Lachlan Winter scoring three, the Scone side managed to steal a win in the dying minutes 8-7.

With all the boys back, they played another hard game against Narrabri going try for try to the final whistle.

With great cover defence displayed from both teams’, the boys snuck away with a 7-6 win. Lucas Grimes showed great work around the rucks to score three tries, and it was a try a piece to Archie Mamone and Laurie Roche.

Cooper Nicholl and Angus Giblin displayed some great skill putting their running and passing game together after they managed to steal the ball. Ted Saunders had a couple of barnstorming runs proving quite difficult to pull down.

The last game was against Gunnedah and after two very tight games almost causing their coach to have a heart attack, they started with a cracking pace and kept it going all game running away clear winners with a 13-3 victory.

James Hannaford and Laurie Roche managed to score two tries a piece, Henry Teague’s hard work paid off with three tries and a motivated birthday boy Flynn Killman scored six tries.

The boys came together all carnival showing some great team work and support play to complete the carnival undefeated.

The Under-8s are playing some great rugby with a lot of potential Wallabies in the making.