Wattles cruise to big victory
RUGBY LEAGUE: It was not the scoreline that impressed Wattles player-coach Travis Burns in his side’s win yesterday.
The TRL A-grade ladder leaders were impressive in their 64-4 victory over an under-strength Brothers but it was the attitude of his players that impressed Burns the most.
“We knew Brothers would be tough today – they’re not having the best season but they were never going to hand it to us,” Burns said.
“We knew we had to come here with the right attitude.
“One of the things we’ve been focused on lately is closing out games – it’s an area where we needed to improve on over the past few weeks.
“I think we did that (closing out the game) really well today.”
Wattles started the game in blistering racing out to a 22-0 lead inside the first 25 minutes through tries to Jackson Green, Ty Gardner, Braydon Wilson and Nicholas Van Der Poel and the boot of Matt Duggan who kicked three of his first four conversion attempts.
Green scored his second of the day for Wattles in the 25th minute before Kyle Wagner crossed for Brothers’ lone try shortly before the half hour mark.
Heading into the half-time break down 38-4, Brothers would’ve been hoping for some respite but Wattles never let up with Wilson’s third try as the siren sounded showing how determined they were.
“We had a few out today which gave some of the boys an opportunity to get out there and have a good run,” Burns said.
“We’ve got a big game against Valleys next week so it was important we went out there today and played well to prepare for that match.”
Brothers coach Chris McEwan was also impressed with the attitude of his young charges.
“We were really struggling for numbers this week,” he said.
“We lost four or five A-grade players through injury last week and had to bring quite a few young blokes up.
“The problem is because we’re so short we had to play those blokes out position. We had some of our under-18s would normally play in the halves out on the wings.
“I can’t fault the attitude though – it’s been a tough season but they’re still showing and we’re doing the best we can under the circumstances.
“Even when it was pouring rain last week we still had big numbers turn up for training.”