RUGBY UNION
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THE Aiden Brice All Stars (ABAS) had a very clear plan in Saturday’s Orange City Rugby 10s final against the Island Boys - and lucky for them it worked a treat.
Clearly on the wrong end of the scales as they battled for the Royal Hotel Cup main prize against some of the Central West’s biggest and best attacking guns, the ABAS boys ran their huge opposition around Pride Park, eventually running out 22-17 winners and ensuring they atoned for last year’s 10s grand final loss.
ABAS speedster Nolan Brice said it was always a treat getting the composite side together for the City 10s tournament, a team that honours his late brother Aiden who died in 2007.
“I think all of the boys have a background in Orange so it’s great to get together,” Brice said.
“Against the Island Boys in the final, the key was just getting around them.
“They’d been playing all day and we had to try and run them off their feet and spread it wide. They had us by about 200 kilos in the scrums, so we didn’t want to go anywhere near that.”
The ABAS outfit went through the competition undefeated, winning pool games against Go Ruck ‘Em and Orange City (1) 10-0 and 19-0 respectively before accounting for the Jack Blunt Legends 20-10 in the semi-final.
They then went toe-to-toe with the Island Boys before overrunning them late in the Cup decider, Terry Brown and Paul Mlotkowski leading the way.
“I think to be fair we had a reasonably easy draw, but it was a great day and we ended up probably playing one game short of walking away with battered bodies, which we were pretty happy with,” Brice said.
In the consolation draws, the Auto Tune Orange Plate Final was won by Forefront Services 22-10 against Dubbo Rhinos, while Avoca Beach claimed a 25-17 win over the Bathurst Bulldogs in the Tandy Welding Bowl final.