THE South Coast Marlins may not have won any of their matches over the weekend at the Brumbies Rugby Provincial Championships but coach Matt Ryan said his side reached its goals.
An attacking Marlins side went down 43-26 against Monaro on Sunday and 48-7 against eventual winners Southern Inland on Monday.
However, Ryan remained upbeat about his side’s efforts and he insisted the Marlins are heading in the right direction.
“We didn’t win either of our two games but we felt we achieved what we went there to achieve,” he said.
“We competed well and we improved on previous performances.”
Jayden Stanton scored two tries on Sunday as the Marlins gave the more fancied Monaro a genuine run for its money.
The South Coast side kept pace for most of the match until some momentary lapses in concentration allowed Monaro to run away with what Ryan said was a flattering win.
“In my eyes, I thought we were a bit unlucky against Monaro,” he said.
“But in this competition if you switch off for 30 seconds, you get points put on you.”
Ryan selected four development players in the Marlins squad and he insisted the quartet turned some heads at the Wagga Wagga tournament.
“They didn’t get a great deal of game time but I think they learned a lot from the experience and it gave them exposure to a more intense style of play,” Ryan said.
The Marlins had three players selected for the Brumbies Provincial team, but Ryan said he was “a bit disappointed” not to have more picked.
MAKING THE NEXT STEP
THE three South Coast Marlins picked for the Brumbies Rugby Provincial side:
Dave Silversides (Batemans Bay)
Andrew Fleming (Batemans Bay)
Raymond Kading (Bombala)