Rugby League | Wolves off to the grand final

There was drama 10 minutes into the second half when Wolves’ Johnathan Van Veen and Mudgee replacement Harley Sutton were sent from the field on touch judges’ reports and were charged with striking.

It will be a worried Wolves’ camp leading up to the judiciary later in the week as Van Veen has been in superb form and is their number one goalkicker.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that the Wolves had beaten Mudgee 12-6 at Lithgow in the semi final with the Mudgee pack being mauled by the Wolves.

Embarrassed by their effort in the semi, it was a different looking Dragons forward pack that came out firing from the opening whistle.

They were out to prove a point with big Todd Munn, Jack Afamasaga, Demitrius Ainuu, Jack Scurr and Rob Clarkson running with a lot of purpose.

The Wolves matched their fire, but following a string of penalties Todd Munn opened the scoring when he crashed through the defence to score under the posts.

Justin Gossage converted and Mudgee led 6-nil after eight minutes.

Midway through the first half, the Wolves dominated possession for a long period which told on the Mudgee defence with Corey Willmott charging over to score to make the score 6-4.

Minutes later, Mudgee struck again when they put on a blindside play to get the ball out to winger Ethan Butler who contorted himself to wrestle himself over in the corner.

The conversion was unsuccessful and the scores stood at 10-4 with the score standing at the half time break.

On resumption,the crowd was stunned when referee Jason Whitney sent Johnathan Van Veen and Harley Sutton from the field after an altercation.

It was thought the Wolves would miss Van Veen more than Mudgee replacement Sutton and minutes later Mudgee went to a 12-4 lead when referee Jason Whitney blew an offside penalty in front of the Wolves posts with Gossage making no mistake with his kick.

Stung by the Van Veen send off, the Wolves forwards started to roll and Ernest Alo served up a great pass to a rampaging Brendon Van Veen who crashed over to cut Mudgee’s lead back to 12-8.

Mudgee went further ahead when the Wolves’ put down a pass and following some excellent interchange passing, Ethan Butler went over for his second try of the match.

It was a good day for Butler who had earlier played under 18s and again crossed for a try.

Mudgee were looking good at 16-8 with 20 minutes to go, but the Wolves would not go away and Wayde Egan got the comeback going when he threw a giant dummy and scythed through the defence to score untouched.

The conversion right in front was missed with the Wolves creeping closer at 16-12.

It was all the Wolves with the Workies pack clearly now on top.

Following a penalty, Wolves’ Kyle Willmott simply got the ball and crashed his way through some tired defence.

Wayde Egan took over the kicking and converted the try with the Wolves taking the lead for the first time all match at 18-16 with 15 minutes to go.

Mudgee looking like taking their lead back when they got the overlap and winger Justin Gossage set sail for the corner only to be bundled out a metre out with a copy book covering tackle by Joel O’Brien.

The Wolves wrapped up the match when Wayde Egan turned the ball back into Antonio Ale who galloped over for the try to push their lead out to 24-16.

The Wolves’ defence held firm to make that the final score.

Coach Graeme Osborne was more than pleased with his side’s second half.

“We looked a little lethargic in the first half, but the boys really stepped up when Jonno (Van Veen) was send off,” he said.

“In the first half we gave away too many penalties, but the final 30 minutes was excellent and if we can reproduce that form next week, we will give CYMS a shake.”

Best for the Wolves were Wayde Egan whose kicking and passing game worried the Dragons defence all game.

Brendon Van Veen was again his usual wrecking ball while others to stand out were Corey Willmott, Chris Rhodes and Ben Stewart.

For Mudgee, Jeremy Lang, Jack Scurr, Todd Munn, and Demitrius Ainuu all tried hard.