ON the eve of Sunday’s semi-final showdown with Kempsey questions still remain, have the Redmen got what it takes to cause a boilover on Cannonballs home soil?
For Redmen coach Gary Powell, losses cut deep…to put it mildly, he hates losing more than he likes winning.
“Our goal at the start of the season was to make the semi-finals. I didn’t know what to expect with a lot of new faces at training,” Powell admitted.
“To be honest I hate losing and now that we find ourselves in the final series there is no reason why we can’t continue further.
“We’ve beaten every side above us this season so I think we have proved we can match it with the better sides in the competition.”
Having a home ground advantage is certainly a positive for the Cannonballs, but for the Redmen coach, the road trip to Ian Walton Field Crescent Head holds no fears.
“I have no hesitation heading down to Kempsey, it’s not a bad ground to play at and it’s not intimidating,” Powell revealed.
“I don’t hold any real fears of going there. Obviously, it would have been ideal to play at home but that’s not the case.”
Grafton have been slow out of the blocks for most of the season and again last weekend against Hastings the trend continued.
Powell admitted it has been is a worrying aspect or their game and added his side can ill afford to do the same on Sunday in the knock-out semi-final.
“It appears to be a mental thing. Our preparations have been great, and we could not have trained any better than we did last week heading into the game against Vikings,” Powell said.
“It has been a common theme all year and we cannot allow it to happen on Sunday in such an important game against quality opposition.”
Many rugby pundits and sideline experts will tell you a blowout score line, as was the case in last Saturdays 101-0 win over Vikings, is not an ideal lead-up to a do-or-die semi final. But for Powell, he can see the upside of last week’s demolition of Hastings.
“I think it was a good confidence builder. We struggled to put scores on teams for most of the season and have not been able to put sides away like we did against Vikings,” he said.
“Two positives came out of last week’s game: it was a good score line and we came away with no injuries. If we were going into Sunday’s game battered and bruised then I would have had some concerns.
“Also, it was good for the young fellows in the side’s confidence scoring tries and having fun.”
