Travis Cooke was strong out of dummy half against Group 21 at the weekend.
Moree representatives Warren Cain, Jeremy Smith, Brian Saunders and Travis Cook helped the Group 19 side to victory in their first round of the Country Championships.
Group 21 were hot favourites going into the weekend’s clash but are now out of contention, leaving Group 19 and Group 4 to fight for the Greater Northern title next Saturday.
Saunders played well in the centres whilst Cook played Hooker, Cain played second row, and Smith played prop.
“It was a pretty tight game; we were on top for most of the game and they came back with two late tries making it a close finish,” Smith said.
It was a high scoring game with Group 19 leading by 18 points at one stage.
The final score was a 46-40 win for Group 19.
New England captain Mitch Porter, who also plays for the Inverell Hawks, was man of the match scoring four tries, one which was set up by Boomerangs player Travis Cook.
Captain/coach for Group 21 Grant Wooden said he found Group 19’s little, quick men hard to handle especially dummy halves Cook and ex-Boomerangs player Kialu Brown.
Group 19 coach Dale Keegan said he was pleased with the result of the game of what he described as a tough match against a strong rival.
“Considering they were talking about putting them in the tier one comp’ at the start of the year, I think it’s a really good result for us,” Keegan said.
Group 4 went down to Group 21 by three points making next weekend’s game a tough match-up between the two underdogs of the competition.
