Quirindi travelled to Gunnedah on Saturday for 2 grades and what should have been our first women’s game for the year. Sadly, the Gunnedah Coach, for reasons only he knows, refused to lend us 2 players to make a game of it! As a result, some 20 Gunnedah girls, and the Quirindi players were denied any kind of game at all. This is hardly the way to foster women’s rugby in Central North. Surely, the aim of all clubs should be to get players on the field any way we can, regardless of the result.
Due to covid rescheduled weddings, we had several key players out, which caused some team changes.
Reserve grade forwards worked hard and won enough ball to be competitive, but sadly Gunnedah, with an unlimited bench wore us down and scored frequently. Lachie Bradfield on holidays from stock camp up north, backed up at No 10 and combined well with Dave Southward in the centres. A chip through and regather by Southward was Quirindi’s only try, the score being 7-48 at fulltime.
Great to see Tom Elsley back on the paddock and playing well. Just goes to show that you should never be too hasty in retiring. The evergreen Warwick Moore led the forwards well. Toby Craig who has been playing so well at half back, suffered a knee injury. Hope he is back soon. 3 points went to Dave Southward, 2 to Hector MacIntyre and 1 to Sam Avard.
The players player award was shared by Warwick Moore and Jack Avard. Coach Andy Avard was very upbeat about the potential of his team, but reminds players that they must honour their commitment to their team mates.
First grade saw Angus Clift back in the second row, the versatile Jock Livingstone move to hooker, Dan Calavasy returned to five eight, allowing Jake Murray to return to the centres.
Both teams went at it hard, right from the kick off. Quirindi were awarded a penalty and kicked for territory rather than take the 3 points. We quickly found out how tough the Gunnedah defence was as we struggled to get into their 25. A change of possession then showed us how big and fast their outside backs were, as Gunnedah scored to lead 0-5.
Quirindi were straight back on the attack but a string of penalties against us, mostly for infringements at the breakdown, continually robbed us of possession and opportunity.
The Quirindi forwards were holding their own, but were yet to dominate, denying the crowd of the chance to see how good our backline is. Dan Calavasy is a class five eight and combines well with Tom Koerstz at half and Jake Murray at Centre.
Gunnedah used their speed of their outside backs to score again 0-12. Quirindi, again looking to play the attacking game, kicked for touch rather than take the 3 points. The forward pack pushed towards the Gunnedah line with strong runs by Tom Grant and George Murray, pulling up about 1 metre short. Angus McKenzie reached through the ruck to score. The conversion missed with the score 5-12.
Gunnedah scored again, but Quirindi put together some good play, but were unlucky when Riley Beresford was bundled out on the corner post, and another time losing control of the ball as they reached out over the line. Quirindi missed the chance to score in the crucial period either side of halftime with Gunnedah leading 5-24.
The Quirindi defence was at times confused, but taking nothing away from the Gunnedah outside backs, allowing the Reds to run away 5-62 winners.
In the later stages, Quirindi used as many players off the bench as we could, to give the younger players some first grade experience.
Yes, we were soundly beaten in 2 grades, but we will learn from it and adapt our game to suit. 3 points went to Angus Clift, 2 to prop forward James Anderson and 1 each to Sam Kelly and Jock Livingstone in the front row.
The players player award was split between the half/five eight combination of Tom Koerstz and Dan Calavasy.
Next week we play Barraba on our home ground.