The weather at Walcha was as good as you can expect. No sideways rain and there were moments of sunshine but sadly, a small crowd.
The Quirindi side was depleted mostly due to injury but Dave Southwood, Will Elsley and James Anderson stepped up, plus 9 dedicated reserves who made up a much needed bench.
Walcha scored early to lead 0-7. It was evident that our scrum would struggle against the walcha pack, but Quirindi managed to hold their possession with quick channelled ball.
Walcha were then awarded a penalty and opted for the scrum. An overlap saw Wally Davidson score in the corner, to lead 0-12. Walcha scored twice more, as our lineout also struggled without Tom Grant jumping at 4. Despite this Quirindi started to gain some momentum before half time but couldn’t turn it into points.
After half time Walcha scored again to lead 0-29 and Jock Livingston left the field with a foot injury. James Davidson moved back to hooker from the flank position, and this settled the scrum on our put in. With 20 mins to go it was 0-50 and the Quirindi crowd of 4 had fallen silent.
Quirindi players were going down like nine pins, with key players George Murray and Dan Calavassi going off. To their credit, the Quirindi team continued to attack whenever they had the ball. The two redheads, Angus Clift and John Ashley, were outstanding in both attack and defence, making the Walcha pack work hard for any gains.
Several certain tries were held up over the line by desperate Quirindi defence but only for the Walcha pack to show the dominance of the set play by executing two very good pushover tries.
Dogged persistence by Quirindi saw us advance through several phases of play and finally rewarded with a Tom Koertz try near the corner. Walcha ran out winner 5-74, leaving Quirindi to regroup for a clash at home against Scone next week. Saturday, 12 June is a Zone bye for Country Week, which will help.
9 Reserve grade players made the journey and the Walcha club organised a 10 aside game for us. It was played in good spirit and was thoroughly enjoyed by players and crowd.
The Quirindi reserves then backed up for the main game, with Harry Gavin having to play another 65 minutes. Sadly, the reserve grade points got lost in the excitement but I think they all deserve 3 points.
First grade points were 3 to Angus Clift, 2 to John Ashley and 1 to Tom Koerstz. The Player’s player awards went to Harry Gavin and Dave Southwood in his first grade debut.