Brothers test the limits of unbeaten Valleys side
RUGBY LEAGUE: Brothers went agonisingly close to pulling off the upset of the TRL Premiership season, before falling 24-18 to Valleys at Glenholme Park on Saturday night.
Despite the daunting task of sitting in 10th spot and facing the undefeated Roosters, Brothers took the game to their more fancied rivals as they piled on their best effort of the year.
Another Valleys master-class looked to be in the works after they raced out to a 12-0 lead inside the opening 20 minutes.
The occasion of Old Boys day helped to lift the Leprechauns however, with halfback Sam Betros getting first points for his team.
Liam Capewell and Brent Edwards exchanged four-pointers to have Valleys leading 18-12 at the break.
The visitors lead pushed out to double digits when Steven Rodgers crossed to give them a bit more breathing space.
That soon turned to hyperventilation after Edwards brought up a double, cutting the lead to six with 12 minutes remaining.
While they didn’t get the two points, Brothers coach Chris McEwan couldn’t have been prouder with the effort of his team.
“It’s the best game we’ve played this year,” McEwan said.
“We’ve been improving slowly. We have a lot of young kids with not a lot of experienced players.
“Every week we’ve improved. We’ve been working a lot on defence and it was really evident last night.”
McEwan said his developing team revelled in having the club’s previous stalwarts around.
“It was a tough game and very physical,” he said.
“The Old Boys came in to the sheds, and the young players lived on the atmosphere.
“We have to back it up now, week in and week out.”
It wasn’t smooth sailing for Brothers from the opening whistle after losing fullback Kyle Wagner to injury in the opening stages, however McEwan said his side stood up despite the adverse circumstances.
“We lost our fullback in the first minute and another 20 minutes in. We also had two blokes backing up from playing reserve grade,” he said.
“Sam Betros was good, as was Ricky Davies. We had a new young player Rob Taylor who was very good as well. He was quite ill but stayed on for the whole game. It was a special effort in itself.”