March 30, 2014
Early indications are the 2014 South Burnett rugby league competition could be a close competition with Murgon and Cherbourg coming away with wins after two entertaining games at Jack O’Chin Oval on Saturday.
A good crowd turned out at Cherbourg for the first competition matches held there this year.
* * *
In the first senior match, the Murgon Mustangs eventually proved too strong for the Kingaroy Red Ants, downing them 34-30 in a close encounter.
At half-time, Murgon was ahead 16-12, and they pushed further ahead immediately after the break when Kane Leddy scored the second of his three tries for the day, which Lewis Hopkins converted.
Murgon then continued to pound the Kingaroy line for the next 10 minutes, almost crossing twice and looking very dangerous, before Kingaroy finally hit back to bring the margin back to four points.
The remainder of the match was even with Murgon and Kingaroy both scoring twice and converting, keeping the four point margin alive to the final siren.
Try scorers for the Mustangs were Keith Walsh, Lewis Hopkins, Kane Leddy (3) and Brendan Saltner; Hopkins kicked five goals.
For the Red Ants, Josh Flood, Kane Stennard (2), Chris Congoo and Luke Beatty scored tries; Toby Broomhall (four goals) and Brandon Walsh (one goal) added the extra points.
|
|
|
This was the first appearance for the premiership-winning Hornets in the South Burnett competition this year and they looked a little rusty in the early stages.
In comparison, the Stags – coming off a loss last week to Kingaroy – were obviously keen to do well.
Midway through the first half, Nanango was leading the home team 14-0 after two tries to Ashley Smallwood and one to Chris Sperling.
With 19 minutes left in the half, Alex “Bunyip” Speedy put Cherbourg’s first points on the board, bringing the crowd to life.
This was followed four minutes later by a try from the Hornets’ Nathan Cobbo. Fred Aubrey converted both.
Carl Aubrey then added another four points to put Cherbourg in the lead for the first time, 16-14.
Right on half-time, Cherbourg gave away a penalty mid-field. Unfortunately for Nanango supporters, the Stags couldn’t convert the subsequent pressure into points and went into the break still lagging by two points.
The Hornets came out fired up in the second half with Patrick Alberts and Gordon Davidson putting on quick tries.
But Nanango weren’t finished, with Keiran Harvey responding four minutes later.
When the Stags crossed again, via Josh Barkle, the scores could have been level at the three-quarter point if the conversion had been on target.
But it was not to be and the Hornets then changed gears, turning the two-point gap into something much larger.
During the last 18 minutes of the match, Fred Aubrey, Alex Speedy, Nathan Gadd and Dennis Sandow all scored for Cherbourg.
The final score was Cherbourg 44, Nanango 24 in a game which was much closer than the final scoreline indicated.
* * *
Other Results:
- U12 – Cherbourg 20, Central Burnett 0
- U12 – Nanango 28, Murgon 14
- U14 – Cherbourg 0, Central Burnett 24
- U14 – Nanango 16, Murgon 32
- U16 – Cherbourg 22, Central Burnett 16
- U16 – Nanango 12, Murgon 44
- U18 – Nanango 20, Murgon 18
NB. southburnett.com.au would like to publish a full list of junior rugby league results. Clubs are invited to submit their results by email on the Sunday after each game
