THE Rugby Union season got into gear last Saturday when the Narooma Whales responded to Glen Ella's invitation and sent a team to compete in the Ella Sevens in Coffs Harbour. This competition is a showcase for indigenous rugby talent and it is used as a trial for the Australian Indigenous Sevens team, which will play against teams from the Pacific Islands and PNG. This tournament is taken seriously with some of the teams beginning training before Christmas. Australian coach Robbie Deans and his Wallabies' coaching staff was present, on the lookout for potential recruits to the Wallaby and Australian Sevens program, reflecting the standard of play on the day.
With a prize of $35,000 to the winning team and the possibility of representative selection, the cream of Australia's Aboriginal talent was on show and a day of great rugby culminated in the Sydney Skindogs taking out the big prize.
Narooma was represented by a group of players based in Narooma or with links to the district. Captained by representative player Tyrone Thomas the Narooma side had a strong squad, but a couple of last minute withdrawals did weaken the team. Thanks to some judicious networking, some of the local talent was drafted in to bolster the squad just in time for the first game.
Calling themselves the Muriyiras, which means Whales in the local Dhurga language, the boys gave an outstanding performance despite the disruption of missing players. A narrow loss to Moree in the first game, 12-5, put them out of the Cup but from there the team's cohesion grew as did the standard of play as they adjusted to playing the Sevens format. Narooma won the next two games impressively to give themselves a chance of playing in the Bowl final if they could defeat the local Coffs Harbour team in the semi-final.
Narooma did beat Coffs Harbour narrowly 7-5 in a nail biter that had the supporters on the edge of their seats. The final saw the boy's take on the Canberra based Boomunulla team, led by Wallaby Andrew Walker.
The game was televised live on television by NITV and a couple of text messages alerted the boys to the fact that supporters back in Narooma were watching.
In the end the dream run came to an end as Narooma went down 35-5. The boys were under pressure right from the kick off as a well-organised Boomunulla team dominated possession. Two tries gave the Canberra team a 12-0 lead mid way through the first half but when Narooma finally managed to get their hands on the ball they scored an impressive try to turn around 12-5 in arrears.
The start of the second half saw Narooma continue to improve and they had several chances to draw level before Boomunulla secured a turnover and scored a long range try to increase their lead to 19-5. Pressure from the kick off resulted in another try with Andrew Walker starting to dominate the play. The Muriyiras had played a hard semi final and had received less rest time. The legs of several players began to wobble as fatigue set in. With the game lost the coach cleared the bench so that all players got to play in the final
Although a little disappointed by the final result, the players were pleased to play in their first tournament. To play in good company was reward in itself. A steep learning curve for the club and a strong desire to return means that Narooma will aim to return to Coffs Harbour next year with an improved understanding of sevens rugby. Hopefully there will be a women's team as well.
A lot of hard work and organisation went into making the trip, especially by Lyn Marlow. Katungul was a major sponsor as well as supplying a mini-bus and the club would like to thank Cheryle Moreton for her help in organising this.
Ironically, the other sponsor was the Boomunulla organisation based in the ACT. Thanks to Uncle Bomber for his support.
Special thanks to Steve Betteridge who stepped in at the last minute to act as team manager and did a great job looking after the boys over the weekend.
Scores
Narooma Muriyiras 5, Moree Strong Blacks 12
Narooma Muriyiras 17, Graduates 7
Narooma Muriyiras 26, Logan 7
Narooma Muriyiras 7, Coffs Harbour 5
Narooma Muriyiras 5, Boomanulla Knightriders 35
Rugby Union Training
The club has started training at Dalmeny on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6.30pm to 8pm. With the season opening on April 10 with the South Coast Tens it would be nice to see more at training regularly.
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