An injury-plagued Parkes Boars was down to 11 men during Saturday’s Blowes Clothing Cup fixture against Orange Emus that ended prematurely because of players walking off the field.
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The aftermath of the match had Emus’ assistant coach Andrew Logan slamming what he called a “disgraceful performance” of a number of Boars at Endeavour Oval, where the match was called off about 70 minutes in.
The opposition was leading 89-0 and the Boars were down to 11 men.
There were no yellow or red cards though – it appeared a number of Boars simply walked off the field during the game.
Parkes struggled to field a competitive top grade side from the beginning, before finishing the round 15 game with little over two thirds of a team.
That came after the Boars’ reserve grade side trumped Emus’ – 2014 second grade title winners and 2015 runners-up – thanks to a late penalty goal.
Parkes secretary Greg Peterson acknowledged the situation was “tough” and less than ideal, putting his top grade side’s player shortage down to unavailability and injuries.
“We’ve had a terrible run of injuries … we’re struggling with the quality as well, there [wasn’t] many first graders available. We had a lot of guys back up from seconds and thirds,” he said.
“Hopefully we can regroup next week in Parkes. We had four or five out today working at the mine, that doesn’t help.
“It’s been a tough season.”
Logan said he had a bit of prior knowledge Parkes’ first grade probably wouldn't be as strong as their second grade side.
“But I didn’t expect to see first grade standard players playing reserve grade for Parkes and then simply walking off the ground during the first grade game.
“There was guys who have played for Central West in the last couple of years, lining up in reserves then simply walking off the field during first grade because they’d had enough, leaving their team [short].
“It’s inexcusable, it’s against the spirit of rugby.
“I distinguish those guys (who walked off) from the blokes who actually had a dig and finished the game for Parkes, who we have nothing but respect and admiration for.
“I’m just disappointed with the whole thing. It’s very sad for Parkes that that sort of thing is going on, it’s sad for rugby in general.”
The result came on the same weekend Narromine was forced to forfeit all grades to Bathurst Bulldogs because of a lack of player numbers.