Cockatoos Dominate ACT Provincial

Camden Rugby club hosted the NSW Country Cockatoos and Cockatoos Colts on a very cold and windy day. The day commenced with our Cockatoos Colts playing three games against identified Shute Shield U19 players from all across Sydney. The Gen Blue trial games were in their second year of this format and the players from Sydney which included players of country origin were split into five teams to have an opportunity to be identified for the newly formed URC competition (Under 19’s Rugby Championship) which will run in September and October later this year. NSW will have two teams in this competition, a Sydney origin team and our very own NSW Country Eagles U19’s team in which country origin players who are playing in Sydney will be eligible as well as our Cockatoos Colts player.

Whilst the results didn’t go the way of the Cockatoos Colts the players performed very well across all three fixtures and certainly put their best foot forward for further representative honors later this year.   

The Cockatoos Colts players typified our Country Rugby values and these young men are a credit to their families, clubs and zones and should be commended on their behavior throughout the camp and match day activities. 

The NSW Country Cockatoos had a more traditional fixture against Brumbies Provincial, which are the best players from their ACT Country competitions. The opening 20 minutes was absolutely brutal with both teams exchanging massive hits. The opening exchanges would lead to some very tired defense after both teams had lengthy times in possession. The Country Cockatoos were first to score and that seemed to lead to some dominance for the remainder of the half with the Country Cockatoos taking a solid lead into the half. A very strong set piece game allowed the slick Country Cockatoos backs to launch some exciting attack which lead to a couple of long range tries. Brumbies Provincial to their credit never gave up and scored the final two tries leaving with that second try ending the game 34 – 24. 

A true team performance with Cockatoos getting the job done up front to allow a very capable and skillful backline to create a lot of opportunities.