Sport
9 July, 2024
Camel cull by Gular
Flamin’ Galahs versus Gulargambone Old Boys and Gulargambone Gulars versus Cobar Camels
By The Substitute Pink Parrot
What a huge success the Combined Codes for Cancer Day was on Saturday, June 29 at McGrane Oval. A strong and passionate crowd was on hand to watch some entertaining games of union and league. Congratulations must go to both the hard-working committees from the Gulargambone Rugby Union Club and Gilgandra Rugby League Football Club for organising such a fantastic day raising funds for the Gilgandra and District Cancer Fundraisers.
In the union action, the Gulargambone Galahs beat Cobar 56-10 while the Gulargambone Old Boys had a 17-12 win against the Flamin’ Galahs in an invitational tri tag match.
Flamin’ Galahs versus Gulargambone Old Boys
The first of the union games for the day was the Flamin’ Galahs taking on the invitational Gulargambone Old Boys in a tri tag union game. The Old Boys were able to scratch up a team of 11 fit young and old souls. The Old Boys were ably led by none other than captain Douggy Irving who holds an undefeated record as captain of the Old Boys.
The Flamin’ Galahs started the game hot to trot and it did not take long for the ladies to open the scoring. By quarter time the ladies were 5-nil up on the Old Boys. It had to be mentioned that there were some scintillating ball-handling skills by Old Boy Paul ‘Pilsy’ Alchin who was so quick off the mark that he left his hamstring behind in one devastating break.
In the second quarter, the Old Boys began to get the gist of the rules of the tri tag rugby and started putting some pressure on the ladies. There was a wonderful father-daughter duel emerging between Old Boy Rowen Chandler and his daughter Sarah around the ruck area. Talk to both of them separately and they said they got the upper hand over the other. The score at half-time was something like 12-5 we believe to the Flamin’ Galahs over the Old Boys.
Into the second half, the Old Boys used the wind and sun to their advantage and gaps were starting to appear in the Flamin’ Galahs. The best sporting gesture of the day was when Old Boy Briggsy purposely dropped a sitter when placing the ball over the try line down at the canteen end that did not go unnoticed by the fans congregated at the bar for the afternoon. Great play from Old Boys Briggsy and new Old Boy Tyrell ‘Diddy’ Trudgett found a gap and were able to score and by full-time the Old Boys had snatched a dramatic 17-12 win over the Flamin’ Galahs.
Captain Douggy Irvine was full of praise for keeping his undefeated record intact. The Flamin’ Galahs attention now needs to turn to what is going to be their most crucial game this Saturday playing the Walgett ladies at Walgett. This game will go a long way to securing and keeping intact second place on the competition ladder for the Flamin’ Galahs.
Training this week will be very important and heads need to be screwed on and concentration at the highest level as the ladies will need to be at their very best to ensure a victory over the Walgett ladies.
Gulargambone Gulars versus Cobar Camels
The Gular men strode onto McGrane Oval with the luxury of a full 23-man squad of players. The Cobar Camels, to their credit, were struggling for numbers just the day prior but were able to manage to bring onto the paddock 13 players. Special mention must go to Gular lads Clayton Chapman and Tyrell ‘Diddy’ Trudgett who laced up their boots and played for Cobar to ensure a fair game. Well done lads.
The Gular men got off to a great start dominating the forward hits, the breakdown, and the backline play. The B-F.A.B. (Baby Faced Assassin Backline) had a new band member this week being the old and experienced Zac Mills, who at the old age of 25, is about six years older than the rest of the band members.
Jack “Don’t call me Darren Lockyer” Bradley took a hit to the throat in one of his rampaging runs that was the cause of some amusement for the remainder of the evening. He is okay and will make a full recovery we believe. The Bowman boys were in everything and led the lads around as they do week in week out. The cunning old fox Tim Bowman went over for another try to back up his effort last week at Warren.
Elten Walker had his best game so far this year in both attack and defence. Jaylem ‘Budda’ Peters was devastating in runs all day around the paddock and bagged two tries.
The scrum-half combination of the ‘Zac Attack’ being Zac Ferguson and Zac Mills kept the B-F.A.B with plenty of ball and some very clever kicking by both ‘Zac Attacks’ kept turning the Cobar Camels around time-after-time. It was without a doubt Zac Ferguson’s best game to date as well and to his credit, he bagged himself two tries.
But it was left to Jake: “Don’t call me Zac Lomax because I amassed 21 points for the game, not 18” Peart who stole the show with a stunning hat trick of tries of some great backline play from the B-F.A.B. boys.
Pat “This isn’t the Manly Marlins” Spora came on and made an impact on the game straight away with great runaway plays and backing up and he bagged himself a try in doing so. Great tackling defence all day by the lads wore Cobar out and a special mention in defence goes to Steve Owens, James Foran, and Issac ‘The Axe’ Grimshaw.
By the time the full-time siren had sounded the Gular lads had their most comprehensive win for some years with the scoreboard showing a dominating 56-10 victory. Again, full credit must go to the Cobar Camel lads who travelled all the way with limited numbers and ensured that the game would go ahead on such an important day in Gilgandra. Points for the day were: one point to Zac Mills; two points to Jaylem Peters; and three points and player’s player went to Jake Peart.
The Gular lads will gain a mountain of confidence out of the win and especially the way that they played. A much tougher opposition now awaits them this Saturday as the club travels to Walgett. But the lads are gaining so much more belief and faith and will give Walgett a real run for their money.
