Forward Paul Black had a strong match on Sunday.
Wellington Cowboys Rugby League coach Brian Johnson believes an injection of youth and some strong performances from the non-Group 11 representative players were the main ingredients in Sunday’s comfortable win over Narromine.
But the question for Wellington now is will their players travel on the long journey to Nyngan who fought on well against Dubbo Macquarie on the weekend?
“I really thought our young blokes Luke Healey and Jayden Chatfield stood up on Sunday and had very good matches, Luke in his second first grade start and Jayden in his debut. They have stepped up and I am impressed,” Johnson said.
The coach is aware the future of the Wellington club is looking good, but Wellington does have some minor concerns following its victory.
They will be concentrating on what they do with the football and how they complete their sets this week.
“We did waste a lot of time, trying to do too much with the footy instead of being patient and setting up things,” he said.
Alister Beale and Ben McGregor impressed off the bench following their strong work against Group 10 the day before. Beale scored tries from speculative kicks with McGregor busting Narromine’s defence wide open on numerous times but Johnson believes the non-representative players also played a strong part.
“Our defence was really the thing that won us the match so convincingly and playing a strong part were players like Paul Black who continues to put in all the time, together with the other forwards,” he said reflecting on Wellington’s win which looked shaky early when Narromine led and also squandered opportunities to go further ahead.
But he believes he has a very competitive side and his hopes rest upon maintaining his side when they travel away.