18 May 2021

Under 14’s Country Champions

The Newcastle and Hunter 14’s Wildfires recently celebrated a fantastic Country Championships with a brave and courageous victory in the final against Central Coast.

This group have been steadily building in confidence, and performance, since being thrown together from their Hunter Clubs in March. A distinct feature of this group of young men is their ability to connect and play for each other in a selfless way. This was reflected in their rugby, as they managed to score some great team tries over the weekend at Salamander Bay.

The first challenge was against New England who we accounted for 39 – 0. Tries went to Pat Nagle, Macca Dooley, Mitch Balzer, Mason Liva, Gus Ellis and Brandon Cox.

In our second game we played Central Coast who are slowly becoming great rivals. Their size and physicality paid dividends and we were defeated 22- 5, with a lone try to Frazer Cameron. We would see them again later in weekend………

Our final Saturday game was another entertaining affair as the team played some scintillating rugby racking up 46 points against Mid North Coast with more new try scorers in TJ Talaileva, Jace Cox, Oliver Lewer, Darcy Emmett and Dominic Louw.

We drew Illawarra in our Sunday semi and our final try to Tom McJannett led to a 17-0 victory and another crack at Central Coast to win the Championships.

The team started fast and smart and went to a 5-0 lead thanks to a try from Dermot Hunt. The Coast then hit back to lead 12 – 5 at halftime, before the Hunter boys stormed home, drawing on plenty of heart and spirit. The final score ended up 17 – 12. Some great performances from Jacob Affleck, Liam Hamilton, Amos Maddison, Cody Snow, Caelun Munro, Tom Reid, and Harry Beckett. Leading the way was also Bastiaan Osborne Zorbas, Gus Barclay, and Mostyn Bowen.

A wonderful team effort also led to Country selection for 10 Hunter boys: Jacob Affleck, Liam Hamilton, Oliver Lewer, Dermot Hunt, TJ Talaileva, Macca Dooley, Frazer Cameron, Jace Cox, Mitch Balzer, Pat Nagle and Harry Beckett.

A further congratulations to Oliver Lewer on being named Under 14 Forward of the Tournament.