The Group 7 All Stars saw their side achieve a resounding victory over the Indigenous All Stars in today's Rugby League showcase in Nowra.
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The match was predicted to be a competitive affair with both sides having strong units built up with a variety of different skill sets. However once the match started the sides no longer appeared to as be equal as initially predicted.
The young 17-year-old call up for Group 7, winger Jye Brooker got the scoring started early with two quick tries off the back of what was an initial strong push by the Indigenous side.
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For the first quarter you could really see that both sides were trying to find their footing and shake off the rust. The hits were as hard as they come and the dropped balls were a plenty as the teams tried to figure each other out and get the upper hand.
As the Group 7 side rounded into the end of the first quarter you could see their attack starting to come into form. On the Indigenous side, however, they continued to struggle to execute consistent offensive sets and found themselves being forced into a defensive game.
Half-back Matt Carroll (7) put down another try to push Group 7's lead to 14-0 after a successful conversion.
The Indigenous All-Stars came alive to start the second quarter making a strong offensive push putting pressure on the Group 7's defense. Indigenous Five-Eighth Jake Brisbane (6) almost had a brilliant open field interception but was brought down.
Luckily, 17-year-old Jarrah McLeoud (16) came to the rescue showing significant speed and putting the Indigenous side on the board. A successful conversion by the Indigenous side brought the score to 14-6. Unfortunately though that would be the last time the game would be that close.
Something must have been said at half-time to the Group 7 side because when they came out onto the field they looked like a completely different team.
Five Eighth Blair Grant (6) quickly dispatched another try for the Group 7 side, followed up quickly with another try by Zaan Weatherall (15) which pushed the lead to 26-6 with the Indigenous side beginning to look flustered.
The Indigenous side continued to give away penalties when in crucial positions while the Group 7 side continued to minimise their mistakes and push a strong attack.
Group 7 wing Donte Efaraimo (5) ran the side strong to convert another try for the side pushing the lead to 30-6.
Things began to get chippy from there with a scuffle ensuing along with a number of choice words being spoken resulting in several players being sent off.
From that point on, the Group 7 All Stars just continued to rub salt in the wound with another three tries from Jake Taylor (16), Hamish Holland (4) and Jimmy Scott (14) all appearing to happen in quick succession.
Jye Brooker capped off the dominating Group 7 performance with the last try of the day securing the young wing a hat-trick for the game.
In the second-half, the succession of quick tries by the Group 7 side saw the Indigenous All Stars lose momentum and confidence which they struggled to regain.
The final score read Group 7 All Stars - 52, Indigenous All Stars - 6.
Group 7 All Stars Captain Nathan Ford pointed to the physicality of both sides.
"It was a very tough game and very physical overall. I feel we started to win the battle after the first 15-20 minutes but then they (Indigenous All Stars) started to come back at us hard right before half-time so we knew we needed to make an adjustment," he said.
"After half-time we tried to push up around the ball a little bit more and overall be more direct. We also had the advantage of the wind in the second half which helped us coming out of our own end."