Moving forward: Janbe Latham of the Eagles under 18s facing off against Port City in a previous encounter this year, is showing the kind of fighting spirit the local boys will need this weekend.
THE North Haven Bowling Club sponsored Camden Haven Under 18s Rugby League team travelled to Wauchope last Sunday to take on the Taree City Bulls in the major semi final of Group 3 Rugby League competition.
The Eagles started off brilliantly scoring a try in the first minute of play but, unfortunately, were unable to sustain this effort for the whole first half.
Unforced errors and ill discipline continually let the Eagles down and gave the opposition many easy metres.
A lack of possession and a lopsided 10 - 2 penalty count saw the Eagles go to the break behind 18 - 10.
Coach, Brett Farnsworth impressed on the players a need to respect possession, get to their kicks and make the first contact in defence count.
“I was pleased with the boys’ effort but we needed to tidy a few things up.We had to attack the edges of the ruck before moving the ball wide, especially to the Bulls’ right side defence,” he said.
The Eagles really aimed up and started to turn things around but errors started to creep in again allowing the Bulls to score some easy tries. The boys hit hard in defence and ran willingly at the opposition but, once again, they turned to much easy ball over giving the Bulls too many opportunities to score. The final score Bulls 36, Eagles 18.
Assistant coach, Steve Bailey summed up the feelings of the team and support staff.
“While we are disappointed with the result, we can take heart from the fact that the Bulls only scored points from our mistakes.We know that we won’t get much help from the referees, so the boys have to play football and disregard the poor calls we have been copping all year. We now have to shift our attention to our next game against Wingham, at Regional Stadium this Sunday.”
The game starts at 12noon The Eagles players, staff and Committee urge all Eagles’ supporters to get along and cheer on the boys.