Whales off to a good start

Wide Bay fly half Troy Ngatai put in a great game at the Queensland Country Rugby Championships.

Scottie Simmonds

WIDE BAY Whales celebrated their return to the Queensland Country Championships in the best possible way on Saturday.

Playing in the tournament for the first time in more than a decade, they recovered from a half-time deficit to record an impressive five tries to one 29-13 first-round victory over Central Highlands at Bundaberg’s Jubilee Park.

Two of Bundaberg’s representative in the team were among the try scorers – No. 8 Jesse McMillan and young winger Elijah Kiddie.

But the Whales’ other winger James Gunn scored the try of the match with a 70m special to put the icing on the cake in the 77th minute.

Whales coach Mark Cassidy described it as an “excellent win”.

“We played very well for early in the season – in our first game, things have come off that we have been trying at training,” Cassidy said.

When they trailed 13-12 at half-time, Cassidy said they needed to “be more aggressive in defence and give less penalties away”.

“We tried a little tactic in defence, standing deeper, and it worked, stopping them from scoring and also cutting down the penalties,” he said.

Cassidy said fly-half Troy Ngatai shone in a robust team effort.

“Troy is just 18 or 19 but he played a very mature game the way he directed the team around the paddock – he was very good,” he said.

“But other guys stood out as well – evergreen Bruce Dalton came on for the last 20 minutes and shored up the scrum and played very well – he really lifted the side.

“I was really happy with fullback Chris Dougan as well and centre Stuart Kamp, Jimmy Courtice was good and Elijah Kiddie, on the wing, was pretty dynamic.”

The Whales will continue to train before their second-round clash with Western Queensland in Rockhampton on April 16.

While Cassidy said they are an unknown quantity, his side’s biggest test is likely to be against Central Queensland in the third and final round, also in the Beef Capital, on May 21.

“But we have put Wide Bay back on the map and we will improve from here,” he said.

Highland player/coach and fly-half Joel Johnston was also pleased with his side, and said it also lifted their communities’ spirit after many of them suffered massive losses during the recent floods.

“It was certainly a big effort coming here after an eight-hour bus drive after one training run,” Johnston said.

“We were not as clinical as them but we are certainly not down-hearted – we certainly had opportunities, but they defended very well – give them credit.”

Johnston said captain and flanker Tim Reeves was “really outstanding”.

“Also our other flanker Chris Weeden was everywhere,” he said.

Wide Bay 29 (Jesse McMillan, Stuart Kamp, James Gunn, Elijah Kiddie, Chris Dougan tries; Adam Ebert 2 conversions) d Central Highlands 13 (Zan Bramford try; Troy Mattson conversion & penalty; Joel Johnston penalty).