Magpies prominent in City U16s win over Country

A hat-trick to City back rower Heinz Lemoto underpinned a dominant 30-0 win over Country in the CABE Under 16s championship at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium in Kogarah today.

Scoring seven tries and conceding none was testament to how well the City staff had brought together the players from eight different clubs from UNE Harold Matthews Cup.

“We only had a couple of sessions to work with them, so the biggest thing we focused on was getting them to bind quickly and work hard for each other,” said City coach Robert Mears.

“We wanted them to be as tight as they could with each other and they did that.”

Lemoto’s three tries earned him Player of the Match and some praise from Mears.

“There were a lot of exceptionally good performances like big Heinzy – he is amazing,” he said of the Penrith Panthers second rower.

“But I actually thought our lock forward Thomas Dellow was really good today. He did a lot of work off the ball that was one of the keys to our success.”

Country coach Shaun Davison said there were plenty of positives despite the one-sided score line.

“The whole week has been good for the boys in camp. That’s one of the best things from the week with NSWRL looking after the boys and giving them a real taste of what it’s like to be in a rep team,” Davison said.

“Today … well unfortunately we didn’t have our best day.

“Footy is a possession game and we didn’t have any quality time with the ball and we couldn’t defend our errors. Then we made some poor choices when we did have the ball.

“It’s a learning curve for these boys – what they need to do to take their footy those next few steps. That can only be a positive.”

City spent most of the first half camped in Country territory, and that was reflected in the 12-0 lead at the break.

That persistence of attacking Country’s right edge paid off with two of the three tries in the first half coming down that side.

Five-eighth Onitoni Large was a busy man in the opening 30 minutes. His pass set up his back rower Lemoto for the opening try in the eighth minute and then he scored in the 15th minute off a nice pass from his halfback Jhett Sydir.

City’s third try was a fine individual effort from centre Heamasi Makasini. He received the ball on the 30m line, put on the after-burners, and then had a one-handed put-down while airborne right next to the corner post.

In the second half, Lemoto proved how dangerous he is when the try line is within close range barging through defenders. He scored twice within five minutes to bring up his hat-trick.

But City weren’t finished there. Hooker Diesel Hagan regathered a grubber from Sydir and then Makasini scored his second.

Suddenly the scoreboard had shot out to 30-0.

It could have been worse – City tried three different goal kickers but were only able to land one from seven conversion attempts.

Scorers: City 30 (Heinz Lemoto 3, Heamasi Makasini 2, Onitoni Large, Diesel Hagan; Kyran Blair 1 goal) def Country 0