GROUP 11 coach Darren Jackson believes his young side has what it takes to form a successful era for the Group after Saturday’s 14-6 win over rivals Group 10.
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Jackson said he wanted his side to win to maximise the chance of Group 11 players making the Western Rams team and that’s exactly what happened after his side took out a game which was played at a high level from first whistle to last.
Nine Group 11 players gained Rams selection and with a number of those players only at the beginning of their representative careers, Jackson foresees good times ahead.
“It was a fairly young side so to put on that performance was good and these guys are the pride of the Group for years to come,” he said.
Group 10 coach Graeme Osborne admitted the changes made to his side due to injury and unavailability did affect the team but believes Group 11 were the better side on the night and deserved their first win in three years.
“This is the third year we’ve come up here and we knew one year they were going to play hard to take it back off us,” he said.
“Unfortunately we had a few late withdrawals but it was still a good side we put out on the park.”
“It’s not really disappointing, both sides acquitted themselves quite well and put on a good spectacle.”
Both sides went into the Western Rams representative cluster day’s main match following earlier wins over the Castlereagh League side, Group 11 impressively 36-6 while Group 10 had to work a bit harder for their 14-10 victory.
The only points from an even first term came via a try to Group 11’s Dubbo CYMS winger Keiran Shipp following a strong run from the outstanding Justin Toomey-White.
The second half began much the same and after 12 minutes Group 11 extended their lead, again crossing out wide.
After moving the ball well from left to right, Jyie Chapman put CYMS teammate and man of the match John Grey over in the corner.
The kick was again unsuccessful but Group 11 continued to impress and were soon in again following some individual brilliance from five-eighth Colby Pellow.
Group 10 finally got on the board with 10 minutes to go as winger Cody Robbins scooped up a dropped ball and flew 60m to score but it wasn’t enough and the score remained 14-6.
Osborne highlighted Simon Osborne, Ben McAlpine and the classy Benjamin John as his standouts but lamented the fact his side couldn’t take their first half chances and complete their sets late in the match.
GROUP 11 14 (Keiran Shipp, John Grey, Colby Pellow tries, Pellow goal) def GROUP 10 6 (Cody Robbins try, Ben McAlpine goal)
