Temora battled illness in the lead up to its elimination final but its hopes of a second first division premiership remain on track following a 28-0 win over Cootamundra.
The addition of a number of Cootamundra Bulldogs rugby league players, including Luke Berkrey, Matt Forysth and Sirla Pera, wasn’t enough to reverse last week’s result as the Tuskers ran out convincing winners at Conolly Rugby Complex on Saturday.
Temora has struggled for numbers this year and things didn’t look good at training again this week with a handful of players missing during the week but it didn’t show come game day.
Admitting his team were understrength and didn’t come together until Saturday, coach Ben Carter was impressed by the performance.
“It was brilliant,” Carter said.
“Our plan was to keep it simple, we didn’t want to do anything too flairy, just keep it basic, work forward and slowly nudge it forward each time.”
The Tuskers scored early through crafty halfback Mesu Vulilaglagi and never let Cootamundra into the game.
The result means the Tri-Colours have gone through the year without a win while Temora will tackle Young in Saturday’s minor semi-final.
Full-time
TEMORA (M Vulilaglagi 2, J Cartwright, M Fuller tries; C Jordan 4 cons) d COOTAMUNDRA 0
