Thoroughbreds Round 15

By David Casson

THE last round of the 2016 Season was completed and leading into the final series Scone Rugby League Football Club has once again finished on top of the Club Championship.

The First Grade and League Tag have finished on top of their competitions, Reserve Grade are second and the Under 18’s third.

The games last weekend were at Greta and at the end of the day, First and Reserve Grade had very convincing wins but the real upset was the first defeat of the season for the League Tag ladies.

League Tag

The League Tag saw the top two teams come head to head and it was always going to be a close affair.

Mistakes were a common sight during the match for the Scone ladies and the first try to Greta Branxton was scored after the first five minutes.

Scone were quite quick to respond however with Sofie Casson making the most of a Lisa East break and levelling the scores at 6:6 thanks to a Charmaine Bloomfield conversion.

Once again it was Greta making the most of Scone errors when they crossed again with 10 to go in the first half.

There was some confusion amongst the officials and players, however the try was awarded in the corner.

Conversion missed and half time saw Scone behind 10:6.

It looked like Scone may make another second half comeback when Casson crossed again, backing up a Maddy Adams break in the middle.

The conversion by Bloomfield pushed them to the lead 12:10 however an error from the kick off put the pressure straight back on.

Greta were maintaining pressure, and went over again following a nice little kick into the Scone in goal area.

The conversion gave the opposition a 16:12 lead.

A failure to get a kick away on the 5^th once again saw Greta with the ball in close proximity to the try line and they crossed near the corner.

A terrific conversion gave them a 22:12 with only minutes to go.

Scone never gave up and a try in the last minutes to Maddy Adams gave a small glimmer of hope –  however it was not to be and Greta finished ahead 22:16.

Coach Casson was disappointed with the loss nut remains optimistic, “we went away from our structure today and made far too many errors”

“We shouldn’t have got ourselves into that position and Greta were good enough to make us pay for it. We have plenty of improvement in our game and we will need it in the major semi,” said David Casson.

Reserve Grade

The Reserve Grade game was a one way affair with a 34:0 half time scoreline.

Unfortunately an injury, requiring ambulance attention to a Greta Branxton player quite early in the second half brought an end to the game.

Scone had managed another of try in the first five minutes however which provided the final result of 40:6.

Tries in the first half were evenly spread with Chris Brennan, Jake Collison, Codie MacArthy, Drew Brown, Haydon Cox (2) and Jake Bailey all adding to their season tally.

Josh Noble converting three. Although Greta Branxton managed a try not long after kick off, Kyle Wilcher scored shortly after and that was the final score with the game ending soon after.

Coach Brennan was happy enough with the win but would have preferred a harder game, “we have had some byes and easy wins leading into the finals which is not great preparation.”

“It does mean however that we have all players available and we will be training hard to ensure we are ready to go in a fortnight,” said Mr Brennan.

First Grade

The First Grade followed the pattern of the Reserve Grade.

The Greta Branxton side saw a number of players backing up from the earlier match and it was always going to be a difficult task for them.

Seven tries and four conversions provided the half time score of 36:0.

Tim Smith crossed in the corner within minutes for the first of his four on the day, two in the first half.

Doubles were also recorded by Haydon Topliss and Josh Adams, and James Carascaolo also added to the tally.

Conversion to Jarrod Wicks (2) and John Johnson.

The second half was the same result with another seven tries to Wes Suckley, Tim Smith (2) Justin Apthorpe, Josh Watson, James Eveleigh and Jarrod Wicks.

John Johnson was on target with another five conversions.

Coach Daniel Ritter gave credit to the Greta Branxton team for their effort, “their boys never gave up even though we scored plenty. We did what we had to do today to get a convincing win but we will need to step up for the semis.”

The Under 18 side will take on Denman at Singleton this Sunday in the minor semi final while the other teams are headed for the major semis which will be played at Scone Park on Sunday, August 14.

First Grade will play Muswellbrook, Reserve Grade take on Singleton while League Tag are up against Greta Branxton again.

Related story: Rugby League Results Round 15