IT won’t be remembered as one of the great pre-season trials, but Port Macquarie Sharks did enough to outlast Wauchope in Port Macquarie on Sunday.
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In a match that featured more dropped balls than points, the Sharks goal-line defence held firm in the dying moments to hang on 12-10.
They also had to defend for 12 men for 10 minutes in the first half after captain-coach Jake Hawkins was sent to the sin bin.
Hawkins said it was a dour, frustrating game that never settled into any sort of rhythm.
“Some penalties were warranted, some were not and the match probably wasn’t allowed to flow which was frustrating,” he said.
“It was a sloppy game, but it was physical and we try not to use the heat as an excuse although it was tough out there.”
The Sharks coach also rolled the dice for the second time in as many weeks with Mitch Wilbow who played in the centres after a stint at fullback last week.
“Mitch was probably one of our best,” Hawkins said.
Some penalties were warranted, some were not and the match probably wasn’t allowed to flow which was frustrating.
- Port Sharks coach Jake Hawkins
While their attack was clunky at times, the Sharks effort in defence satisfied the coach the most.
“Most of our dropped ball was in our own half, but we kept defending it and that was pleasing,” he said.
Wauchope coach Anthony Boyd wasn’t too disheartened by his team’s performance which wrapped up their pre-season ahead of the Group 3 opener on April 14.
“We were very clunky in attack although our defence was pretty good for this time of the year,” he said.
“There was a lot of dropped ball, but you expect that in a pre-season trial.”
The Wauchope coach admitted his team had room for improvement especially with the ball in hand.
“We know we’ve got a lot of improvement in us and the boys did show glimpses of what they’re capable of in attack,” he said.
“Overall we probably didn’t offer a lot, but we’re about getting the fundamentals right early in the season.”
Boyd was impressed with the performance of new signing Liam Quinn at lock, along with Beau White in the centres and Sam Watts at fullback.
We were very clunky in attack although our defence was pretty good for this time of the year.
- Wauchope Blues coach Anthony Boyd
“It’s hard to single out any specific players, but as a whole defensively we were pretty good,” he said.
“One or two bad reads cost us.”
Watts delivered the final pass for Tristan Scott’s first-half try and also offered glimpses of what he’s capable of in both defence and attack.
“We rode Sam pretty hard in the off season,” Boyd said.
“I had a brief word to him and he’s played a better role for us in our three trials.”
The Blues now have three weeks until their season opener at Old Bar and Boyd admitted it wasn’t ideal to have such a gap between games.
“It would have been nice to have had the pre-season pushed back a week or two because three weeks is too long to not do any contact work,” he said.
“But we’ll work hard amongst ourselves.”
