
Halves Morgan Carter and Jaylin Moran helped steer the NSW Koori Under 16s to a 36-8 win over the Maoris U16s in Auckland today to get their New Zealand tour off to a winning start.
Carter scored the first of six tries by the Kooris, while goalkicking five-eighth Moran landed five conversions and scored twice himself for a personal tally of 18 points.
Carter’s scheming and creative play at No.7 earned him the Player of the Match award.
Other try scorers for the NSW side were Kade Mackay, Tremayne Millgate, and Jett Mackay. Bailey Hall also kicked a conversion.
Prop forward Linjarra West was also impressive in both defence and attack.
The 60-minute game was played in three 20-minute quarters, with team manager Scott Mieni saying conditions weren’t ideal.
“It was very windy with rain on and off,” he said. “So to get the score we did was pretty extraordinary.
“Obviously we dominated from the start. We sort of got them on the back foot early and kept the pressure up.
“Midway through the second quarter after we scored our fourth try, the boys took their foot off the throttle a bit and the Maoris got into an arm wrestle and made things a lot more difficult.
“They scored and we had a lot of dropped ball and a few penalties go against us. That prompted our coach Jake Foster to have a good yarn to them ahead of the third quarter.
“We scored five minutes into that last quarter as we clicked into gear again.
“It became a real battle in the forwards for that final 15 minutes with both sides scoring. But we’d done enough early to get the result.”
The NSW Kooris will now play an Auckland Rugby League development (Under 16s) side on Thursday before returning to Australia on Friday.