Despite having to play on Coolah's home ground, with six less men than the home side, the Wellington Redbacks came from an astonishing deficit in the first half to win against the Roos during the Oilsplus Cup round seven clash.
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Injury and work commitments meant Wellington had 17 players against Coolah's 23 man squad but the Redbacks still managed a 32-29 win.
Coolah was the first scorer in the game, with Wellington following not long after thanks to a try from Steven Matheson, but that was the only points the Redbacks could get on the scoreboard in those first 40 minutes.
Redback's coach Greg Brien said the team started off slow and made a lot of mistakes in the first half.
"We just tried to push few passes and dropped a lot of ball ... we put ourselves under pressure right from the start," he explained.
The Roos kept putting points on the scoreboard and at half-time it was 22-5.
In the sheds the Wellington coach told his players that they had to treat the ball "like a piece of gold."
Those words sunk in, because the Redbacks came out firing during the second half.
The Wellington team scored two tries against the run of play in the first five minutes of the second half, which Brien said "got us right back into the game" and gave the side "purpose".
"And Coolah's heads sort of fell a bit... it was virtually a tale of two halves for us," he explained.
We were just lucky enough that on the day we come away with the points.
- Greg Brien, Wellington Redbacks coach
Less ball was dropped and the Redbacks didn't try to push passes, the coach added.
"Those two tries against the run of play really changed our outlook... we could of quite easily gone back out and fallen back into the same style of play that we'd completed in the first half," Brien said.
"And every time we kicked, we kicked with purpose.
"We put the ball down the other end and didn't make mistakes in our own half so if we were caught in our own half we'd boot the ball down the other end and put Coolah under pressure and let them make the mistakes coming back off their own line."
A stand out on the field was Kurt Stokes, who the Redbacks coach described as a solid, all round player.
"He doesn't take a backwards step ... he gets in and does the hard work and carries the ball up," Brien said.
Brien praised the Roos efforts saying every time they're such a good team to play against.
"They're very aggressive. When you're up there you know you're playing them because they really love that home ground," he said.
"We were just lucky enough that on the day we come away with the points."
So far the Redbacks have lost only one game this season and this Saturday will be facing another away game when they square off against the Molong Mapgies who are currently top of the leaderboard
The Wellington coach said in order to win against Molong they will need to keep those defensive patterns and trust in each other's ability to make tackles.
"The opportunities will come. The same game plan. We don't play the ball in our own half, we put it down the other end and try to put some pressure on them and let them make a mistake and go from there," Brien said.
"Molong's always going to be tough and we've had some good battles last year. We were lucky enough in the first round to catch them a bit under down. This game is going to be a lot more tough for sure."
The Redbacks coach encouraged Wellington fans to come along to their next game saying if they get local support during away games it's always a good day and a good game.
"If we can get a few supporters to travel down and cheer us on that makes it all the more sweeter," he said.
Taylor Jurd
Hi, my name is Taylor Jurd. I am a journalist with Australian Community Media, I write for the Western Magazine and Wellington Times.
Hi, my name is Taylor Jurd. I am a journalist with Australian Community Media, I write for the Western Magazine and Wellington Times.
