At last week's NSW All Schools rugby union under 16s titles, James Sheahan Catholic High School student Beau Westcott had a pretty massive call to make.
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With the game in the balance and no time left on the clock, Westcott’s NSW Combined Catholic Colleges outfit was awarded a penalty 35 metres out, five metres in from touch.
So, in that situation, do you back a miss firing goal-kicker to land the three points or brush him all together, go for touch, search for a try?
Westcott, like any good leader does, backed his prodigiously talented goal-kicker, Lathan Hutchinson-Walters, and the reward was a 16-15 win over NSW Combined High Schools in the final and NSWCCC’s first triumph at the All Schools level.
Skippering the team from the side of the scrum, the gifted Westcott was stunned in the aftermath of the history-making win.
It was just an amazing feeling.
- Beau Westcott
”Our goal kicker had missed two kicks just before the match-winner … there was a bit of confusion but he reassured me he’d get it over and he did,” Westcott revealed.
“It was just an amazing feeling.”
Westcott, the lone central west player in the side, and the NSWCCC boys weren’t supposed to win one game, let along jag three to claim the title.
But on day one they beat Combined Associated Schools, a group drawn from the GPS giants in Sydney, 17-5 before downing the equally strong Independent Sporting Association side 39-22 to make the final, against another underdog in the form of CHS.
It was the final no one expected.
“If, on day one, you rocked up and said CCC would play CHS in the final, you’d have been laughed at and dragged off to the asylum,” Sheahan teacher and NSWCCC assistant coach Nathan Short said.
The challenge now remains in NSW All Schools’ selectors hands, with the NSWCAS and NSWISA sides predominantly called upon to fill the All Schools side come selection time.
Given neither even made the final, it’ll be hard to see either side given any sort of majority.
That, according to Westcott, belongs to his side and the tremendous CHS outfit that pushed CCC all the way to the final whistle.
“It’d be awesome and open up a pathway I’ve never been down before,” Westcott said of his potential inclusion in the NSW All Schools under 16s team.
“A lot of the side is usually private schools, so it’d be good to get most of our side in and a few of the public school boys from CHS in the side too.”