“IT was an awesome experience.”
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That’s how NSW Country five-eighth Adam Perri described his campaign at the Southern States Under 20 Championships last week, despite admitting to being somewhat disappointed with the Cockatoos Colts’ results.
Perri, who directs traffic for Orange Emus in the Blowes Clothing Cup, was joined by fellow Central West stars Tom Fisher and Logan Brockmann (Orange City), Riley Byrne (Parkes) , Daniel Sweeney (Forbes) and Craig Ticehurst (Nyngan) in the NSW Country side, which won one of its three games at the championships.
The Cockatoos Colts lost their first game to Western Australia Force 39-7 before bouncing back to thump South Australia 41-nil. Heartbreakingly, NSW Country lost out to a strong Queensland Country unit in game three, 34-31.
“We should have won that game too,” Perri said.
“But we did pretty well, we won a game which was a plus. There was certain times things could have gone the other way but that’s football.
“Regardless, it was an awesome experience for all of us. I think we’ll all be looking to take what we learned and put it into improving our club football now.”
Perri played all but five minutes - he was sin-binned in the dying stages of the clash against South Australia - of the tournament in the No.10 jersey, directing his side around with aplomb.
Despite playing a starring role, he was adamant his teammates were more deserving of any praise coming the sextet’s way.
“I played okay, but I thought the other boys were really, really good,” the fuzzy-haired, bearded pivot said.
“Logan in particular. He played some really good rugby off the bench and used his fresh legs, and strong technique to his advantage.”
Brockmann, a Forbes’ junior and former Kinross Wolaroi School student, lined up in the front row for NSW Country, proving a vital cog in a dominant Cockatoos Colts pack - Perri said playing behind his side’s scrum was a highlight.
“Our scrum demolished everyone else’s,” Perri said.
“They earned penalties constantly, and pushed them all around big time.”
A Southern States team will be named out of the championships, and the sextet is expected to find out if they earned higher honours early this week.