History was made last Saturday when the inaugural Castlereagh Community Cup competition kicked off with games being played at Walgett and Dunedoo.
Designed to provide Rugby League for the smaller communities within the vast Castlereagh League area, the competition has created much interest with good crowds on hand to take in the first-round action.
Trangie Magpies travelled to Dunedoo to take on Mendooran Tigers and made a nervous start after trailing 18-0, with the Tigers racing in three converted tries in the opening 15 minutes.
However, the black and whites regrouped and stemmed the flow of points from that time on, with no addition to the scoreboard when the teams left the field for the half-time break.
The Magpies went on to “win” the second half 12 points to 10, but they paid the price for their opening fifteen minutes, going down to a strong Tigers outfit 28-12.
Whilst they never seemed like they were going to lose the game, the Tigers will be looking to make sure that they don’t repeat their slow start when they travel to Walgett to play the Dragons in Round 2 on Saturday.
The Dragons and the Gulargambone Galahs fought out a tense 14-all draw in their Round 1 game. The Galahs will now be looking forward to having their first home game, when they host Trangie this weekend.
The Castlereagh League season proper is drawing near with the League Tag knockout being played at Cobar on Saturday 28 March followed by the Youth League and First Grade knockouts taking place at Gulgong on Saturday 11 April.
Planning is also well underway for a Castlereagh League Referee’s camp to be held in Gulgong in conjunction with the knockouts, on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 April.
Former NRL referee Gavin Badger will be in attendance over the two days with the camp being open to existing referees and anyone wanting to become an accredited referee.
For details about the camp, contact Castlereagh League secretary Bryson Luff at castlereaghleague@gmail.com
Castlereagh Community Cup Round 1 scores
Mendooran Tigers 28 (Stephen Eyles, Rory Madden, James Eyles, Ben Gallagher, Sam Wesley tries, Madden 3, Stephen Eyles goals) Trangie Magpies 12 (Troy Carter, Mick Louie tries, Peter Evans 2 goals) played at Dunedoo.
Walgett Dragons 14 (Malekai Halem 2, Quinton Kennedy tries, Kennedy goal) Gulargambone Galahs 14 (Sonny Bill Walker, Elvy McEwen, Kadyn Arrowsmith tries, Brank Hammond goal) played at Walgett.
Round 2
Saturday 21 March
Gulargambone V Trangie
Walgett v Mendooran
Check local media and club socials to confirm game times.
