Last weekend’s Morgans Kiama Sevens wasn’t the winning start to its pre-season campaign Orange Emus had hoped for but for a number of the club and city’s guns the 46th edition of the tournament proved a huge success.
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Emus missed the Country Cup finals after going winless through the pool stage but greens stars Lachie Harris, Jack Marchinton and Jayden Norris, along with former Orange City Lion and now Manly Marlin Yool Yool, did claim some silverware, inspiring their Newcastle Sea Men to the $2,500 Bowl prize.
Hunter Ward, another former Lions junior who has linked with the Marlins for 2018, helped Manly to a fourth finish in the top tier as well.
“We didn’t get the results we wanted, no, but there were some bright spots we can take plenty from,” Emus manager Matt Findlay said, his side dropping all three pool games to Albury (33-12), Kiama (22-5) and Grenfell (24-5).
“A lot of guys were unavailable or playing with other sides so we didn’t send our strongest outfit down, but the guys who did play deserve a lot of credit. For most of them it was their first introduction to sevens and even though it took a bit of getting used to, we improved and we probably could’ve won those last two games if we executed a bit better.
“Louis Carr, Joe Melino, Harry Hamilton and Aidan Baker were particularly good and I’m hopeful it can be a building block, and with a bit more work I don’t see any reason we can’t give it a real shake next year.”
Harris, Marchinton, Norris, Yool and the Sea Men’s win came in a gallop and finished with a 31-7 win over South Coast in the final, a performance Findlay lauded.
“They were very good, that final was as dominant a win as you’ll see in sevens, they never looked like losing,” he said.
“Having a lot of Orange boys in the side we obviously wanted to give them plenty of support, Molong too, so we watched most of their games and it was great to see them get a win. Marcho and Yool were particularly impressive in that final.
“They donated $500 of their winnings to the Jimmy Little Foundation too, a nice touch.”
Molong also missed the finals in the Country Cup, but did manage to pick up a lone win over Jindabyne before going down to eventual champions The Lakes and Shoalhaven.
Ward’s Marlins side was beaten by Temora in the top tier’s third-place play-off, while Victoria’s Box Hill – a side that included a number of Melbourne Rebels squad members – upset reigning champions Warringah in the main event.
Emus is expected to send a colts side to the Cowra Twilight 10s before trial games against Eastern Suburbs at Canowindra on March 10 and a second and final trial at Endeavour Oval later that month.
