By Tania Phillips
Playing without four of their regular key players, the Warwick Cowboys have increased their unbeaten streak to seven with a gutsy come from behind win against the fast-improving Goondiwindi team at home in their Toowoomba Rugby League Hutchinson Cup match on Saturday.
The Cowboys, who now sit alone at the top for the TRL ladder, defeated Goondiwindi 34-16 after being down 12-nil early in the first half.
However they will face their next big challenge when they take on Gatton, who trail them by just one point on the ladder, this weekend.
Coach Col Speed was full of praise for his side who have not only emulated their 2023 start but out-done it and stamped themselves as true contenders for this year’s title.
“It’s always a tough night out at Goondiwindi,” he said.
“Some of the new guys haven’t experienced this before but it’s a three-hour car trip and it’s a pretty late night by the time you get home so it was good for us to get out of there and get a good win.
“Goondiwindi always do well at home and it’s always interesting after a we have a week off with the break, how the boys are going to respond but also when they have a week off, some club’s use it as an opportunity to recruit players and I know that I would. You never know who you’re going to be up against. They’ve got some quality players down there and it looks like they’re turning the corner which is good.”
He said initially the A grade didn’t start well.
“We zero from five sets in completion rates and then they scored an early try off a back set of six and we were 12-nil in the first fifteen minutes of the game,” he said.
“To the boys credit they hung in there and we changed our game plan a little bit in terms of playing a lot squarer and playing them in the middle rather than trying to get them on the edges where they had excellent speed and it was a lot better. We got back to the grind and there was positive communication at half-time and we came back out and started completing sets back to back and eventually the result came.”
He said the team really worked hard to turn things around.
Cowboys three points went to Tom Bell the left second rower with two points to Josh Robinson the fullback.
“Josh is getting better and better in that position,” Speed said.
“Our players player went to Dan Conn who has been an asset coming off the bench for us this year. He’s been knocking on the door of a starting position which was really good.”
Speed said the Cowboys had a couple of players on debut in the game.
“AlifeletiVite and Angus Ridley came off the bench for us and they were outstanding,” he said.
“They’ve come with our reserves, we had four key players out on the night which just shows our depth. We were missing Nick Chapman, Tony Conn, Mitch Wilson and Byron Crichton. They are massively important player in our line-up, we missed a couple in the middle but they opened the door for others but we’ve got to have that depth. It was a good opportunity for others to come in and show what their wares were about which is good.”
The result on Sunday emphasises the depth the Cowboys have this season. They had a similar start to the season in 2023 but as the season went on injuries started to tell on the side and they dropped a little off the pace.
“As an overall club we’re showing that we’re doing something right and we learned from last year about needing depth,” he said.
“I think success brings good people along with it and everyone is buying into what we are doing at the moment.”
He said it was dangerous time to play Goondiwindi as they start to turn the corner but it was a true club effort with both grades digging deep to win.
“Our reserve were fantastic although their attack was a little bit clunky and they probably weren’t really happy with it but their defence was outstanding, they held them out and got a zero scoreline which was fantastic,” he said.
The Cowboys now take on second-placed Gatton at 2.30pm on Sunday afternoon at Cahill Park Sporting Complex.
Results:
A grade: 36-16 tries Joshua Robinson 21’, Joel Tapie 37’, Joel Tapie 41’, Caleb Murphy 44’, Swithen Sakiki 59’ and Hayden Ensbey. Conversions: Caleb Murphy 5/6.
