North Ward told to lift
THIS WEEKEND
THE North Ward Old Boys are eager to back into the Townsville and Districts Rugby Union top four, and return to the early season form that saw them touted as finals’ hopefuls.
The Old Boys play Charters Towers in a full day’s worth of A grade action at Mike Carney Toyota Park, starting with Ross River’s game against Brothers.
Teachers Wests and Burdekin play tomorrow’s final game, which could prove to be the match of the round, but North Ward believe they face a danger game of their own.
The Old Boys started the season with two wins but have dropped their past four.
Their form slump has disappointed North Ward skipper Daniel Withers and he’s called on his team to lift their game.
“Last year we didn’t have a great team, but we played above our weight and we were happy with that,” Withers said.
“This year we have a strong squad but we haven’t been getting results recently, and that’s been disappointing.
“We really want to mix it with Teachers, Brothers and Burdekin, but to stay with them we have to win the other games.”
A grade newcomers Charters Towers are yet to score a win after six rounds but have been improving, and at times caused headaches for Brothers last weekend despite suffering a 43- point loss.
North Ward beat the Bulls in their season opener 51- 28, not that Withers is reading too much into that result.
“They’re improving week to week, so we have to make sure we’re at our best,” he said.
“You take them lightly your peril.
“Last time we played them they still managed to score three or four tries on us even though we had a big win. at
“They’re really hungry get that first win.”
The Old Boys led Burdekin last weekend by nine points but were eventually overrun by the fast finishing Canetoads 45- 28, resulting in North Ward again getting no reward for tough work.
“We just got tired near the end and Burdekin made us pay,” Withers said.
“So our fitness needs to improve, along with other things that we’ve been working on at training this week.”
In other rugby news North Queensland’s under- 18 schoolboys team has finished third at the Queensland Rugby schoolboys championships after beating Capricornia 13- 12 on the final whistle.
NQ missed out on a grand final berth after narrowly losing to eventual champions South Coast in the semi- finals.
TDRU Round 8. Tomorrow.
2.30pm Brothers v Ross River; 5.20pm Teachers West v Burdekin; 6.50pm Charters Towers v North Ward. to