THE Lithgow Professionals Storm under 16 players made their way into next week’s 2014 grand final with a bruising 26-22 win over the Mudgee Dragons.
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They will be hoping to be joined on grand final by Storm 10s, 13s and 15s who play in today’s finals.
The Storm under 16’s showed plenty of character to win in extra time against Mudgee at Mudgee.
The match started off as a real arm wrestle as was expected, with some heavy defence seeing poor completion rates from both sides.
Karl Wilson ran and tackled himself to a stand still throughout and was supported well by Riley Allan with some big hit ups.
Front rower Nicholas Miller was also making great inroads into the Mudgee defence and came up with a good try.
Five eighth Cameron Denley was playing himself back into form but towards the half time break had to leave the field due to a knee injury.
Toby Kenniff tried hard to crack the Dragons defence as did Bradley Ford.
Kaleb Richey hit the ball up hard for his side all game with Braden Walsh giving good support.
With the game in the balance big Apelu “AJ” Togia charged onto a great flick pass from Connor Legge playing at halfback and crashed over for a strong try.
Storm’s Pat Darlington was running the ball back well all game and managed to cut back in off the wing and cross for a much needed try.
The Storm bench was being utilised to its full potential with injuries and fatigue setting in.
With the score locked up at 16-all at full time the two very tired sides went into 20 minutes of extra time.
Early into the extra time period hard running centre Nathan O’Donnell broke through the Mudgee defensive line and sent the ball out to Jarrod McPhail who showed great determination to score in the corner for his second try of the day.
With the Storm now in front on the scoreboard they put all their remaining energy into defending their line and were able to hold on until the final siren to come away with a well deserved win.
A low point of the match for the Storm was when winger Ryan Bilby was taken out over the sideline and sustained a broken leg from the impact.
The Storm will now enjoy a week off and look forward to playing either Mudgee or Orange CYMS in the 2014 under 16s decider at Bathurst’s Carrington Park.
The Storm under 16’s wish team mate Ryan Bilby a speeding recovery.
