Great start to rugby season for Milton March 27, 2013, 8 a.m. The 2013 rugby union season kicked off in great fashion on for The Star Hotel Milton Rugby Club on Saturday afternoon at Narooma for the annual South Coast 10 a side competition. On a lovely sunny afternoon Milton kicked off their tournament with a match against last season’s grand finalists Bombala. Instead of playing the more razzle dazzle running and kicking style of 10 a side rugby offers up, Milton decided to use the tournament as a training platform for the competition proper which kicks off at Frogs Holla against Batemans Bay on the Saturday, April 13. Newly appointed coach David Searle said “we decided to use the 10 a side competition as a trial for the competition rather than going out and trying to win every game using touch football tactics”. The first game against Bombala provided Milton with the perfect opportunity to implement the skills and fitness developed at preseason training this year. Playing a structured go forward style of play, Milton’s forwards led by Simon Davies, Matt Beauchamp and Tristan Gibbs dominated the first game against Bombala’s bigger pack. The pick and drive and hit ups used by the more mobile Milton forwards laid the platform for Milton’s backline to run amok. After having Bombala continually on the back foot, Milton swept in for five tries. Fullback Mick Devlin finished off two sweeping backline movements with the assistance of winger Andrew Fuller to score two tries and new recruit Corey Joyce showed great strength brushing off a number of tackles to score a well-deserved five pointer. Halfback Mitch Maddison used his loose forward skills to steal possession like a ‘thief in the night’ and run 40 metres untouched for a try under the posts, before Lewis Tait drifted across field after another strong forward burst and found a gap and scored the final try for a 27-5 first round win. The second game was played against Narooma and again we decided to stick with our structured game. The forwards again dominated the bigger Narooma forwards giving five eighth Grant Oliver and inside centre Hayden Benjamin time to dictate play and set our backline alight. After blowing a couple of chances to score by attempting to score off every play we went back to our structured system and points began to flow. Two tries each to forwards Kiyoshi Yamamoto and Simon Davies and another to flyer Mick Devlin resulted in another 27-5 victory. The final against Bermagui Cobargo resulted in a disappointing loss against a very quick and mobile side which used their superior touch football skills to run in four tries to nil. Coach Searle, although disappointed with the result was very happy with the effort. We got sucked into their style of play and instead of playing to our forward strength we tried to match it wide with their speedy outside backs. When the penny dropped and we went back to our structured game we began to make metres and again won the forward battle. However, a combination of good defence, inexperienced refereeing and the bounce resulted in Milton’s only loss for the day. Coach David Searle has been appointed with co-coaches Scott Brennan and Michael McKercher in an attempt to steer the club to their first south coast premiership since the late nineties. “Everything has been positive so far,” Searle said. “We have been training very well under strength, conditioning and skills guru McKercher. “The new and advanced training equipment purchased by the club has resulted in a varied, fun and rewarding training session being completed by the players each week under the guidance of the three coaches.” Michael McKercher has had extensive coaching experience with schoolboy rugby in the ACT whilst David Searle has had experience coaching Camden first and second grade teams in the late nineties in the Illawarra competition. Scott Brennan is a local Milton Rugby legend who has both played and assisted running the club since the early nineties when he first came to the area. Prior to that Brennan and Searle played together at Liverpool Rugby in the old Sydney second division. “Despite being happy with the effort of the boys so far we are still on the lookout for anyone interested in pulling on the famous red white and blue of Milton Rugby,” Searle said. “We will guarantee you will have a great season and if we continue with the same effort, build on the platform we have already set and get the commitment from the players we will have a very successful year.” If you are interested in playing training is on every Thursday at 6.15pm or you can contact David Searle on 0404 095 104.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Jun 2013 21:58:17 +0000
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