The combined Glen Innes-Guyra rugby side suited up for the first round of the New England Rugby season and faced a formidable task in taking on the reigning premiers St Albert’s College.
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The game was shifted to Armidale’s Alcatraz after Bellevue Oval was closed and saw the GhostStags take it to the students early on with the visitors leading 10-7 at the break.
A lack of match fitness saw the side drop away in the second stanza to eventually go down 29 points to 10.
Despite the scoreline at end of the game, vice-president Sam Price said it was still a great hit out for the start of the season.
"It was a very brutal game, it was a very solid defensive game, there were some big tackles going both ways,” he said.
The first half was very even, we just ran out of steam in the second half and let Albies have space and they are the sort of team you just can't do that with.
- Sam Price
"The first half was very even, we just ran out of steam in the second half and let Albies have space and they are the sort of team you just can't do that with. As soon as they get a bit of open space they are pretty hard to catch. To take on the reigning premiers was good for us.
“It was a good hit out, we had a couple of players that didn't quite get to the game with the change in time.
"It sets a really good platform for us going forward.”
Price highlighted the performances of Fergus McIntosh and Jeremy Grills. He said there was plenty to work on ahead of their clash with the Blues this Saturday.
"A bit of scrummaging work, we need doing, which will always be a bit of an issue for us,” he said.
"A bit of work on our set plays and just match fitness.
"It was a great game of rugby to watch and we are just looking forward to the season and where we can go with it.”
St Albert’s co-coach Chris Kelly predicted once the GhostStags hit their straps, they will be a force to be reckoned with.
“We played well but we were just very patchy,” Kelly said.
“The execution at the final point was not quite where it needed to be.”
He said in the first half they let the GhostStags dictate and got caught playing the game they wanted them to.
“We played reasonably well into their hands. We were trying to play 10-man rugby,” he said.
“We changed our tactics a bit late in the first half and got on the board.”
They then ran away with it in the second half.
“We’ll be better for the hit-out,” Kelly said.
“A lot of the guys weren’t in the best condition they could be but played large patches of the game.”
