Rugby union
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THE Griffith Blacks have made a bright start to the new Southern Inland Rugby Union season with a 41-0 demolition of Cootamundra on Saturday.
New five-eighth Tom Russell was the star of the show in his club debut, going over for one try, converting four others and slotting a penalty in a best-on-ground performance.
The win was never in doubt as the Blacks turned in a 17-0 first-half before bettering that output in the second stanza, much to the delight of the strong crowd in attendance at the Coro Club.
It also keeps Griffith's undefeated 2013 record in tact on the back of a flawless set of pre-season results, with the club now surely one of the dark horses to take out this year's SIRU crown.
But what impressed coach Lee Kimball the most wasn't his side's attacking prowess it was their refusal to lift the foot off the pedal when victory was secure.
"They were willing to work for each other, scrambling when they had to... if someone missed a tackle, the next bloke was there to fill in," he said.
"It was a really good team effort to keep them scoreless, because Cootamundra weren't a bad side at all.
"If you were watching the game and not the scoreboard, you wouldn't have thought it was that many (tries).
"They did play well and put it to us.
"We just scored some good tries we bombed a few too, I might add, but it was a good day."
Kimball paid tribute to star recruit Russell, who was irresistible in the middle of the park alongside Jason Waring-Bryant and inside centre Enoch Tia.
"After everything we'd heard about Tom from the Central Coast, he played even better than I thought he would have," he said.
"Tom ran the ship pretty well."
But the coach warned there is still plenty of improvement left in the Blacks.
"Against the really, really top sides, our discipline and our composure we'll be made to pay if we don't improve on those things," he said.
"We've got a lot to work on, for sure.
"But you can't whinge about the score.
"For our first proper hit-out of the season I couldn't be happier.
"But there's still plenty of things we need to do.
"We need to work on our discipline, our composure, our scrums, our line-outs.
"That stuff can still get a hell of a lot better."
The only sour note was an injury to captain Seru Roge.
The fullback badly broke his finger and went to Wagga Base Hospital yesterday morning to have it repaired.
"He'd be out for a good two months, I'd say," Kimball said.
Not the Blacks will struggle for players putting their hands up for a first-grade game after the club's reserves outfit produced a come-from-behind 24-22 win over Cootamundra.
"They showed really great commitment they were behind with about five minutes to go and stuck to it and got their noses in front," he said.