Blake Austin hat-trick not enough to get City home
Scoreboard
Country: 34
Tries: 6 (J. McManus, A. Uate, D. Mead, T. Sims, J. Wighton & J. Croker)
Goals: 5/6 (J. Maloney)
Field Goals: 0
City: 22
Tries: 4(B. Austin x3 & J. Tedesco)
Goals: ¾(M. Moylan)
Field Goals: 0
Match Review
The Country vs City is a very highly looked-upon match in the Rugby League community. This years match was played infront of a full house in Wagga Wagga.
The game was full of suspense and edge of your seat action. Blake Austin was a star on the field, scoring 3 tries in his first City vs Country appearance. Austin’s attacking style didn’t go without notice. Austin has a chance at making a representative side in the future from todays performance.
Trent Barrett, Country’s coach, said that his teams effort was awesome. Late tries from Canberra Raiders duo Jarrod Croker and Jack Whighton helped push the Country side to win the game by 12 points. Other notables efforts include Akuila Uate’s strong attack to score in the 29th minute, to level the scores.
The game started with back-to-back tries from Blake Austin. Austin’s effort helped push City to a ten point lead after 15 minutes. Country took ten minutes to respond. There response came in the form of a flying James McManus. McManus collected the ball of the 5th tackle to score to the right of the posts. Country were not done there, Uate decided it was his turn to find the white paint. After charging through the City’s defensive line, Uate scored to level the scores in Wagga Wagga. Two minutes after the half time break Country were on the attack yet again. This time David Mead took the ball to score. Country now had an eight point lead. Tariq Sims scored eight minutes after Mead. Country now had a significant lead of 24 points to 10
City didn’t seem to happy about this. James Tedesco took matter into his own hands, scoring just five minutes after Tariq. City were still two unconverted tries away from catching up to Country. Noticing this, Blake Austin went for his third try of the day, on his City Country debut in the 63rd minute. City were starting to close in with a single try away from taking the lead.
The raiders duo of Jack Wighton and Jarrod Croker scored back to back tries for Country in the last 10 minutes. This ended the relentless attack from Country, winning the game 34 points to 22.
These two teams will have made an impact on NSW Blues coach Laurie Dally, all the players are hoping to make the 2015 Blues side for there clash against Queensland later this month.
