Charters Towers put to the sword
A “TOUGH day at the office” has failed to dampen Kane Fuller’s ambitions for his Charters Towers side.
A closely fought opening 30 minutes of the Townsville and District Rugby Union was quickly eradicated as a fitter North Ward outfit tore the out of towners to shreds.
But despite the lopsided 55-8 scoreline, Fuller was adamant the Bulls were not back to square one, with new flyhalf Cody Thorn impressing the skipper.
“He’s come over from league and come straight into A-grade playing fly-half for us. All the praise in the world for him, he handled it really well,” Fuller said.
“He’s got a lethal pass on him and that helps us out, if we can get our structure down well he’ll be brilliant for our team.”
The Bulls fielded a young side with six debutants taking to Mike Carney Park.
North Ward captain Dan Withers proved a formidable force with his size as his side gained the ascendancy at the back end of the contest.
With a vastly different side, Charters Towers have sought to implement a more expansive brand of football – with their new No. 10 at the centre of it.
But Fuller said fitness would be an area they would need to continue developing if they were to contend with the top sides in the competition.
“Coming up against North
(Josh Fletcher 2, Dan Chorley 2, Dale Chatterton, Chris Peters, Tom Wells, Curtis Rayment tries; Fletcher 6 goals)
(Anthony Vili try; Nick Short goal)
(Aaron Benato, Xander Bernard tries) def by
(Nathan Deidrichs 2, Angus Crisp 2, Jon Salee, Dan Withers, Ginau Henry, Sam Bradley, Sam Delaney tries; Declan Marchioni 3, Delaney 2 goals)
(Josh Robins try, Sam Knuth penalty)
Ward, they always have some good quality players and they bring it to us,” he said.
“It’s never an easy game, they get out there and want to hurt you and get that ball back. As you saw out there they really showed their dominance and class.
“First 30 our structure worked very well, we were a bit dominant and swinging that ball to make their big fellas run around. “There were a fair few tries in broken play that really hurt us. Our scramble defence could have been a lot better but that’s something to work on.
“We’re definitely not back to square one, there’s definitely some positives we can take away.”
Charters Towers will next face Lavaracks Army Rugby Club in their first home game of the year.