A dominant eight tries to three 49-16 win by the Newcastle Rebels earned them the NSWRL Men’s Country Championships crown for 2023 over the Riverina Bulls at Woy Woy Oval on Saturday.
The Rebels took control early with five tries in the first half setting up a 30-6 halftime lead.
Three players scored doubles for the match – wingers Joe Woodbury, James Bradley and centre Timanu Alexander – while five-eighth Chad O’Donnell (pictured below) kicked all eight conversions to earn the Player of the Match award.
Prop Jayden Butterfield even kicked a field goal in the final seconds of play.
“The scoreline even blew me away a bit but we knew we had it in us,” said Rebels coach Adam Bettridge.
“Newcastle takes this competition really seriously and Chad’s an example of doing the extras," he said.
"It’s a rep program so all the players train hard and work hard. It’s a pleasure to be their coach.
“The guys can now concentrate on Denton Engineering Cup and we’ll be back next year hopefully to defend the title.”
Bulls coach Aaron Gorrell said it was a different training routine for his players who came from Gundagai, Wagga Wagga, Tumut, Young, Temora and Leeton to represent the Riverina district.
“Newcastle have been training twice a week since January,” Gorrell said.
“We got together on a Sunday four times before our first match. So we always had our backs up against it I guess, but we went into today pretty confident.
“We did come up short and probably saved our worse match for the tournament for today.”
The Rebels gave forewarning that a 33-point win might be in the offing. They beat the Western Rams by 28 points in last week’s Semi-final.
But it was end-to-end football for the opening 10 minutes as both sides got through their sets.
Off the back of their first penalty for the match, the Rebels found the overlap down the right edge with winger Bradley finishing things off.
O’Donnell converted from the sidelines for a 6-0 lead.
Newcastle camped themselves in Bulls territory off the back of points and it wasn’t long before more came.
Halfback Sam Clune sent a sublime pass to his centre in Alexander, who accelerated through a small gap. O’Donnell didn’t miss and it was 12-0.
In the space of 12 minutes the Rebels scored three more tries – Bradley and Alexander grabbed their second while winger Joe Woodbury enjoyed a long-range try.
He was chased all the way by Bulls five-eighth Nathan Rose, who ankle-tapped him at the death but Woodbury had enough momentum to reach out and score.
All of a sudden it was 30-0 but the Bulls didn’t hang their heads.
Centre Zane Bijorac bustled his way to the try line with a fend and pure determination to get his side on the scoreboard just before the halftime siren.
In the second half, it was still all the Rebels with Woodbury picking up his double in the 46th minute.
But the Bulls pulled one back when fullback Latrell Siegwalt weaved his way through and then converted his own try (36-12).
The seventh and eighth tries for the Rebels – Jayden Butterfield and Cameron Anderson – put the result beyond doubt with 16 minutes left to play (48-12).
Centre Brayden Draber scored a consolation try to give the Bulls something to go home with.
Scorers: Newcastle Rebels 49 (Joe Woodbury 2, Timanu Alexander 2, James Bradley 2, Jayden Butterfield, Cameron Anderson tries; Chad O'Donnell 8 goals; Buttefield 1 field goal) def Riverina Bulls 16 (Zane Bijorac, Latrell Siegwalt, Brayden Draber tries; Siegwalt 2 goals)
