Red Bend Catholic College is one of those schools when you think of sport, you think of rugby league.
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And on Wednesday at Parkes’ Jock Colley Field the school’s open rugby league team showed exactly why.
Sublime with the football and brutal in defence, Red Bend proved way too good for Dubbo Senior College in a 36-8 trouncing in the western final of the Country Cup.
Red Bend will now progress through to the southern finals, where they’ll play the best schools from the Riverina, Wollongong and Victoria in a four-way play-off.
Based on what the seriously-stacked Red Bend side displayed on Wednesday, there’s no reason to think Pat Rudd’s side can’t progress deep in the next stage of the secondary schools’ tournament in term three either.
With Western Rams players like Darby Medlyn, Campbell Woolnough, Ray Towney, Farren Lamb and Jayden Burke leading the way, the Forbes school ran riot to run out seven tries to two victors.
Rudd said the toughest part about coaching the side is fitting all of the school’s gun players in the starting 13 - they played Wednesday’s final without arguably the most talented too, NSW Country under 16s fullback Benji Glasheen.
“I think they showed what they can do today as footballers,” Rudd said,
“I think our discipline in defence was great, it’s something we worked on and it showed in the game today.”
Red Bend defended its own line gallantly throughout the opening stages of the match as Senior Campus guns Jai Merritt and Luke Gale both threatened at regular intervals.
“They had four sets on our line and couldn’t crack us. That’s what brought us home,” Rudd added.
After withstanding that initial barrage, Red Bend then clicked into gear with the ball.
Medlyn crashed over for his side’s first before Lamb put Towney over in the corner for Red Bend’s second moments later.
Then, capping a scintillating 10-minute period in possession, Woolnough dove over from acting half to score his school’s third of the game, racing to a 14-0 lead in the process.
Dubbo never really recovered.
Luke Evans then bopped his way over to cap a wow of a half for the Forbes school, leading 18-0 at the break.
Three further tries in the second half - all of which were converted by the usually reliable right boot of Towney - shot Red Bend out to a 36-0 lead, Lamb’s stunning individual four-pointer one the outfit really enjoyed.
Dubbo’s two four pointers, the first to Blaine Gordon and the second to Merritt off a lovely Gale off load proved little consolation.
Both props, Aaron Mawhinney and Evans, the later scoring a double, were instrumental in the victory.
“I think those two in the middle controlled the ruck well and allowed us to control the game,” Rudd said.
RED BEND 36 (Luke Evans 2, Farren Lamb, Campbell Woolnough, Ray Towney, Darby Medlyn, Stu Kennedy tries; Towney 4 goals) def DUBBO SENIOR CAMPUS 8 (Jai Merritt, Blaine Gordon tries)