Local players seek Gold

The West Australian
March 9, 2011, 11:51 am
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Perth Gold, the pick of WA's local rugby players, take on Sydney first grade side West Harbour at Harvey Field, Cottesloe this afternoon, kick off is at 5.30pm.

Coach Dwayne Nestor will field a similar side to that which took on the Western Force 'A' side a fortnight ago and expects stiff competition from the Shute Shield outfit.

West Harbour have headed west for two matches as part of their pre-season and will take on the Force 'A' side on Saturday.

Nestor said it was a great opportunity for local players to match up against Sydney competition.

"The game this evening will be a good chance for Perth Gold to pit their skills against a team who play an extremely high level of rugby," Nestor said.

"It's opportunities like this that allow Premier Grade players to increase their rugby experience and they haven't really had that chance in previous years,"

Stand out players from the Perth Gold side will be chosen to join the Force 'A' team on Saturday.

Perth Gold

1. Gary Neugebauer (Associates)

2. Mason Pomare (Wanneroo)

3. Oli Hoskins (Cottesloe)

4. Keiran Stringer (Cottesloe)

5. Tom Hobbs (Associates)

6. Nick Haining (Cottesloe)

7. Ben Taylor (University)

8. Anare Koliavu (Palmyra)

9. Ethan Carlisle (Perth Bayswater)

10. Mike Denton (Nedlands)

11. Michael Lees (University)

12. Juan Pretorius (Nedlands)

13. Heremaia Te Aute (Wanneroo)

14. Chance Peni (Wests Subiaco)

15. Johnny O'Connor

16. Stefan Cooper (Wanneroo)

17. Daniel Griffiths (Associates)

18. Byron De Freitas (Rockingham)

19. Luke Doherty (Nedlands)

20. Al Rovira (Associates)

21. Tyler Berry (Wanneroo)

22. Dave Cloete (Cottesloe)

23. Ammon Matuauto (Associates)

24. Isaiah Mosese (Wests Subiaco)

25. Christof Van Der Schyff (Wanneroo0

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spo...ers-seek-gold/

Only got to see the last 20min didnt see much gold out there, maybe somebody else watched a bit more and spotted a bit of gold. the 8 was strong got them on front foot scored a good try attacking close to the line, the rest of the forwards solid worked hard but some basic skills lacking. 9 and 10 shut down the back line with side ways running and looking for them selfs, so didnt see the backs in action.
Also seems they didnt use the bench much?
Again only watched last 20min so can only comment on that 20mins

was nice of them to give plenty of notice of the game in case anyone was interested in watching it.

What time is Saturday's game?? Curtain raiser??

It was up on the Perth Gold page (one more fixture to come, will look it up directly) but yeah, it was hardly widely publicised.

Apparently it ended 20-10 to Harbour.

Would have thought they would be playing these as curtain raisers anyway.

Saturday, April 23: Perth Gold v Force ‘A’

I am always in awe of the venue. Would have to rate as one the most beautiful rugby fields in the world.

Lots of dropped ball and silly mistakes - could be nerves, not having played together etc etc. Still inexcuseable considering they have been training for the past several months.

Hoskins at 3 held up his side of the scrum very well. His opposite number would have to be embarrassed to know he was done by a teenager.

Razor at 8 worked very hard, but with Last year's PG Hampshire winner, Cloete, Peanut, Dogga and Brocky on the bench amongst others, until the last few minutes, the Gold may not have been at full strength.

Got to work on catch and Pass and taking the right options, backline cutting in with numbers outside, losing the ball in contact, flinging the ball backwards, poor kicking all of these can be fixed, but commitment and enthusiasm was palpable, would have to be a great bunch of guys to work with.

I thought the Perth Gold was supposed to be a selection of the State's best players & to be held in high reguard. However it seems to be a development team (which i dont mind but perhaps we could call it a development team instead of our State's best). I can think of many players floating around in club land that would out perform many of the current PERTH GOLD squad.

I was very dissapointed with the match, a huge catch & pass error count from both sides gave us a scrum fest (which the young Perth Gold front row dominated). West Harbor's halfback looked good as did Perth Gold's number 8 Anare Koliavu. It would have cost a considerable amount of money for the Pirates to come & stay here (having experience in this around the 55 thousand dollar mark). I understand that it is pre-season bla bla bla but I expected & alot more from the Perth Gold (the best players in Perth club rugby) & a first grade Sydney club.

To answer a couple of interesting comments:

Perth Gold is meant to be the best players in Perth and is not short of that. The issue is that we are now actually providing the Force A with options when needed. As we are struggling with 9, 10 and the midfield at Force A through injury from the top level many of the Gold players are stepping up. In fact we will have 10 players involved in the squad this weekend. We are also very aware of selecting players with a good attitude and on performance and not on reputation. We have lost a number of players to injury early season and cut a few that were great players with bad work ethic. Seeming we are providing guys like Chance Penny, Olly Hoskin, Gary and Isi etc thats only 17 or 18 with this level of exposure I didn't think we went to bad at all result wise - agree 100% it was a scrappy game but although we have been together for a while we were only able to train as a team for 1 session as a result of player movement to the A side.

That put a side basic catch and pass skills were the poorest I've seen them and it was disappointing that we went from starting very well to finishing as we did. We also needed to keep those players on the bench fresh as they need to play on Saturday and was only available if really needed. The above all brings disruption to a teams prep and as we had a large number of youngsters they struggle to adapt quick enough.

Hopefully our next outing would make up for the last result!

I guess it becomes more difficult to be motivated to pick the WA 1st XV when there is no genuine competition anymore. ARS kicked out, APC gone, ARC gone, tour matches no more.
It is understandable (though a shame) that these fixtures have become development matches as ella describes.
I used to love it when WA took on the AB's and Lions and was always proud of the boys no matter the spanking we got, because I knew (too young then to know of any selection politics etc) they were the best Western Australia had and was the pinnacle of WA kids ambitions (if he didn't want to travel). They even wore similar jerseys to what we were wearing in the junior state sides!

Perth Gold has to stay;we have to have some sort of pathway. At this time of the year the coaches of the Gold Team are in the unenviable position of having players taken away at any time for the Force A team, having to fit in the Force Academy players, having to select other players for those away for work, holidays etc. and trying to work in with clubs so as not to impede on their pre-season planning.Clubs should always encourage their better players to represent WA.
I take it with a pinch of salt; better to have some games than none and after all they did win the inter state competition last year in Adelaide. Now that team looked OK on paper to me at least.

Perth Gold is critical as is a State under 20's team. I commend RugbyWA on the initiative and effort that has gone into getting these teams back up and running in 2010 and this year.