Group 9 Rugby League stalwart Aaron Byrne showed his class against Harden on Saturday. Byrne is pictured slicing through the Devil’s defence at Harden on June 15 at Robert’s Park.
The Harden Red Devils came off second best in a very physical match against the Cootamundra Tri-Colours at Fisher Park on Saturday. The winner of the match was awarded a home Grand Final on August 10.
The Tri Colours will now host either Harden or Condobolin at Fisher Park after the 41-19 win over Harden in the Major Semi Final.
Condobolin managed to hold off the Boorowa Goldies 12-8 in the minor Semi Final and Condo will again make the trek south east to take on Harden at Harden on Saturday at 3:15pm.
Boorowa scored through William McGuiness in the first 20 minutes and got on the scoreboard again in the 67th minute with a penalty to Brendan McGrath.
Condo however, posted 2 tries and managed to convert one for the win.
In the Major Semi, Harden started well and posted the first points however, Coota retaliated and went in soon after, scoring the next 3 tries. 5 try scorers combined for Coota on Saturday with Pat Cameron 2, Gus Forster, Issac Mitchell, Matt Berkrey and a long distance effort by Captain Aaron Byrne.
Byrne looked dangerous whenever he was given a little room to move.
The Coota scrum again proved problematic for Harden who found themselves on the back foot on a number of occasions.
Coota Coach Mark Elia said, “We are always worried about Harden, they have a high Rugby IQ, they are last year’s champions, I thought we would play Harden 3 times this year. We were lucky to get a few tries in there after Harden scored first.
I thought Byrnesy had his best game of the year but it was more through his defence he was all over the park, he really had a captain’s knock. Pat Cameron was good from Fullback. We had a couple of blokes out, but we had to play well we were pushed to play well. Charlie Booth at Halfback was like another loose forward.
It was lucky for us that a couple of Harden’s players got injured early. We welcomed Angus Forster back in the Front Row and he anchors our scrum well”
“We had a tough year last year, we have had to regroup this year, if we do any good this year it really started last year.”
Harden’s tries came through Jack’ OConnor who led his team mates very well. Tom Lenehan and Ben Lenehan each scored, with Ben scoring the last try of the match.
President Ben Lenehan said, “Everyone played well, James Wallis was very good for us. The game was a physical contest, we dropped the ball in attack and a few times when we shifted it wide. We felt confidant we could get over the line once we got to the their 22 but it’s a credit to the type of team Coota is.”
The Devils lost Adam Walsh to a nasty injury early in the match with the veteran needing a flux capacitor or a copy of the ‘Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ to play this Saturday.
Clint Stevens tried all day as did Jim Honner. Shahid Khalfan showed plenty of class in his return and Billy Bolger was sound at the back assisting him. Josh Quinn was unlucky not to go in with a barnstorming run down the sideline.
The bench got a work out with James Daley and Heath Kirk adding some spark along with Will Quinn who came on in the Second Row. Jake Chandler did a job both in the Backs, and covered in the Backrow.
For Harden, James Wallis was awarded 3 points and players player, 2 points: Ben Lenehan, 1 point: Shahid Khalfan.
Coota will rest up and plan their assault on whoever they face in next Saturday’s Big Dance.
