Cherrypickers face tough competition

The Young Cherrypickers have faced some tough competition and poor weather conditions when they travelled to take on Cootamundra last Sunday 9 August. While the first grade and league tag squads faced off against Cootamundra outfits who proved to be too strong on the day, the under 18s and the reserve grade squads returned to Young with strong wins under their belts. The under 18s were able to defeat Cootamundra 18 - 4 and the reserves had a 34-4 win over the Cootamundra reserve grade. Cherrypickers' Andrew Smith said they had good wins under the conditions and both teams got up. "Whenever we're playing Coota, it doesn't matter where the guys are sitting on the ladder it's generally a pretty hard fought game," he said. In the reserve grade match, Mr Smith said the Cherrypickers were terrific and even down on players they were able to wear down Cootamundra. Mr Smith said the match was pretty close with twenty minutes to go before their fitness helped them run away from Coota, and started scoring much of their tries in the second half. The first grade game was a lot closer, with Cootamundra claiming a 12-10 win over the visiting Young squad, which was down a couple of players. Mr Smith said it was a game of two halves, excelling in the first half and not doing so well in the second. Their game plan was put in a bit of disarray with a couple players out on the day, but the Cherrypickers came out firing but couldn't do it for 80 minutes. While the game was close, Young were able to cross the line twice, compared with Cootamundra's one try, however the home side were able to capitalise on several penalties, scoring three penalty goals to bring the final score to 12-10. In the league tag match, Cootamundra proved to be too strong on the day, defeating the visiting Young squad 46 -0. "They were certainly outclassed by a good Cootamundra side," he said. Looking forward, there are two games left in the main season, with Young hosting Gundagai this Saturday 15 August and hosting Kangaroos Wagga on Saturday 22 August. Mr Smith said hopefully the Cherrypickers can finish their regular season with a couple of wins. Across the club, the Cherrypickers under 18's, first grade and women's tackle squads are expected to make the finals, however the reserve grade squad needs to win their next two matches to sneak into the top five. Looking at this weekend's match, Mr Smith said Gundagai will be tough and they will have to play well and get some combinations going.