Canowindra Public School won their Westmont Shield quater final against Smithfield West 26-6 at the Oval last Thursday.
Smithfield West arrived Wednesday afternoon and were treated to fine country hospitality, a sheep shearing demonstration that night and a balloon inflation on Thursday morning.
Smithfield West meanwhile initiated theCanowindra boys into the intricacies of the haka as half the Sydney team was of polynesian descent.
Despite being a bit nervous the Canowindra Public boys opened the game with their usual blend of fortress like defence and expansive attack, which shocked the bigger Smithfield West team, who maybe thought that Canowindra's size meant they would be easy beats.
A couple of penetrating hit ups from Curtis Hughes, Tim Wythes and Simon Whatman took play into Smithfield West's quarter from where Jayden Brown almost got over the line in the next hit up.
From the next play the ball travelled to the right side of the field where Smithfield had bunched up and Kurt Tidswell exploited the open space and went over the line for the first score of the game.
Bradyn Cassidy converted the try and Canowindra lead by six points.
Jared Zahra made the most of his debut in the run on side as he assisted in tackling a flying Smithfield West winger and was almost on the spot to regather a kick ahead and score.
However it was centre Bradyn Cassidy who was the next scorer after he outstepped the defence and scored near the right corner
Jayden Brown guided the kick through the posts and Canowindra Public led 12-0.
The forwards were again led by Simon Whatman, Curtis Hughes and Jayden Brown, who provided the initail breaks but they were ably backed up by Tim Wythes and Dean Wilson with Harry Whatman being the little general at dummy half.
Canowindra's lead increased to sixteen points as the ball again went wide through halves Rohan Toole and Bailey Cain before Alex Willson passed to Bradyn Cassidy who again broke through the defence only to be tackled just short of the line.
Just before he hit the deck he passed the ball behind the tackler to Jared Zahra who caught the ball and scored the teams third try for a 16-0 score line at the break.
Soon after the break Smithfield West hit back with a rolling set down the field which finished in a converted try, which narrowed the lead to ten points 16-6.
Over the next ten minutes play see-sawed from end to end as both sides dropped balls and then tackled tenaciously to keep each other from scoring.
Zak Whitehead in particular pulled off a couple of brilliant last ditch tackles on the wing which saved certain trys.
With heart rates going up and down in Canowindra supporters on the sideline it was left to the little general, Harry Whatman, who dived under the big defenders and scored the game breaker wide out on the right hand side.
Jared Zahra added the extra two points which stretched the lead to 22-6.
The game was put beyond a doubt when Bradyn Cassidy scored his second try of the game right on the bell for a twenty point win, 26-6.
After the full time celebrations the generous Smithfield west players presented their Canowindra counterparts with an Eels hat and an individual supporters ball from their favourite NRL team, a very generous gesture.
Special thanks goes to Ian Wythes who set up the Burdett Hall for the barbecue on Wednesday night and the field for the game on Thursday morning.
Canowindra Public's opponents are not yet known as the winner of the South Coast region is not yet decided and they then play Young, the winners of the Riverina region.
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