Cover Photo: BarTV

Tallon Smith

The Riverina Bulls have fallen in the first round of the Country Championships for a third consecutive year after going down to the Monaro Colts 30-18 at Laurie Daley Oval in Junee on Sunday afternoon.

The Colts raced out to a 12-0 lead through just nine minutes through tries to centre Jamie Mazzarol-Kotz and lock Darby Medlyn, before Riverina hit back following some great finishing work in the corner from Vili Cerei.

Monaro regained its 12-point advantage soon after, when some clever work from dummy half by fullback Connor Williams saw him link with winger Tristan Eldridge before receiving a pass on the inside to race away and score.

Needing to be next to score, Riverina hit back through Yanco-Wamoon forward Ulai Oti-Lahood, who crashed over off an offload from five-eighth Will Herring.

The pattern of trading tries continued in the second half, with the Colts next to score through Eldridge, before veteran Kyle McCarthy found his way over for Riverina.

However, McCarthy’s conversion of his own try was the first goal the Bulls managed to kick, leaving the score at 24-14.

Soon after, the result was put beyond doubt when Allan Wratten put his name on the scoresheet for Monaro, with Cerei completing his double for Riverina in the final minutes to leave the final scoreline at 30-18.

Despite the match continuing a run of three straight Men’s Country Championships losses for the Bulls since they lost the 2023 final to Newcastle, Riverina coach Blake Dunn said there were a lot of positives to come out of the match.

“There’s a lot of takeaways, they scored one more try than us, there was a fair bit of difference in goal kicking, but I thought we had the game plan to win the game,” he said.

“We didn’t quite play well enough and execute what we wanted well enough to get the win, but overall I was really happy with the efforts of the boys.

“We had to play for long periods on the back foot, and we handled that pretty well considering, and we always were able to play out of those positions well. 

“In the end there was probably a couple of moments we didn’t quite execute [in which] led to a break from them and a try, [which was] a bit of a turning point for us.

“Overall there’s a lot there to be happy with, I thought the boys’ efforts and just their commitment to the task at hand and the bloke next to them was really impressive, particularly for the rep arena, I thought we had a really good bunch of guys that put their hand up this year and gave a good account for themselves.”

The Country Championships competition is known for its unforgiving single elimination format, where teams spend time preparing for what can easily finish as a one-game campaign.

In light of this, Dunn said the return of the Kelly Cup to the representative calendar prior to the selection of the Riverina team helped with his side’s preparation.

“Getting a game under everyone’s belt at a higher level I think is helpful before the main game, the only other way we could have done it is to find a trial somewhere for Riverina,” he said.

“Overall I think it was a good thing.”

Looking at the rest of the opening round of the competition, one other match was played this weekend, in which the North Coast Bulldogs defeated the Greater Northern Tigers 62-6, with two more games set to be played over the next fortnight.

Meanwhile, the Riverina Women’s team suffered a second consecutive loss in their 40-6 defeat against Monaro.

Josey Hoey was again the lone tryscorer for the Bulls, after having crossed for the side’s only points in its 56-4 loss to Western Rams in Parkes last weekend.

On the winning side, doubles to Molly Sturgiss and Lara Cosgrove helped the Colts to the eight tries to one victory.

The losses mean that both Riverina teams have been eliminated from the competition.

In other the other women’s Country Championships match played on Saturday, the North Coast Bulldogs defeated the Greater Northern Tigers 30-10 in Tamworth.