By BRYSON LUFF

“The commitment and attitude were there but the ball security wasn’t!”

Such were the sentiments of Brad James, the captain/coach of the Castlereagh League representative side that played in the Western Rams trials on Saturday 17 February.

The Cougars were far from disgraced in their matches against both Group 10 and Group 11, going down by 12 points in each encounter.

Playing in very hot and steamy conditions at Wellington’s Kennard Park, the Cougars first played against Group 10, with their day getting off to an inglorious start when their opposition raced in for a converted try wide out in only the second minute of play.

However, from that point on the Castlereagh team dominated the game territorially but their inability to hang on to the ball saw them fail to convert that territory into points on the scoreboard and late in the second half the Group 10 side again went wide for another try to make the half time score ten points to nil.

The second stanza opened far more productively for the Cougars and with six minutes elapsed Castlereagh’s centre, Washie Itoya was able to touch down and they were on the board and in the game with the score reading 10 to 4 in favour of Group 10.

Whilst the scoreboard had improved for the Cougars, their handling did not, and this most certainly did Group 10’s chances of victory no harm and with five minutes remaining they went in for another converted try to make the final score 16 points to 4.

With the mercury and humidity combining to make conditions not at all pleasant both the Castlereagh team and Group 11 were keen to complete their on-field commitments for the day and with minimal time between games the Cougars were back out on the field.

It would seem that Group 11 were wary of the Castlereagh forwards and the bulk of their attack saw the ball spread wide resulting in three unconverted tries and a 12-nil final scoreline with once again the Cougars lack of ball control not aiding their cause.

Obviously disappointed with the results, James was none the less very proud of the effort put in by his team, as indeed were all the Castlereagh League supporters.

In summing up the Castlereagh coach viewed the 2024 trials as a springboard to further Castlereagh involvement in the years to come, recognising the fact that the younger players in his squad gained so much experience from being involved which can only be a good thing moving forward!

Many Castlereagh clubs are now organising trial games in preparation for the 2024 season which will kick off on the 13 April with the League Tag and Youth League knockouts being played at Coonabarabran followed by the senior rugby league knockout on 20 April at Coolah with Round 1 of the competition being played on the 27 April.