League: Aussie giants too strong

Diehard fans watching the under-16 Upper Central Zone team lose to New South Wales Country 30-8 could have been forgiven for thinking they were watching a scene from TV series Land of The Giants.

The Central side, made up of players from Bay of Plenty, Coastlines and Waikato, were dwarfed by their Aussie counterparts at Puketawhero Park at the weekend.

Upper Central Zone struggled to come to terms with the size of Aussie players such as 16-year-old Brad Johnston who stood 1.93cm and tipped the scales at 114kg.

He also sported a beard that had many on the sidelines questioning the youngster's age.

Johnston wasn't even the tallest player in his team - Will Sheeley towered at 2.05m and weighed 100kg.

But New South Wales Country coach Gary Bridge said they breed them big in the Outback.

"Those big boys are from the country. Obviously they're standing in the right sort of manure over there.

"But yeah there is some big guys which is good because usually we don't have such a big side but this year we have some big boppers."

Their size, pace and skill set were too much for the local side to handle with Central down by 16-0 at halftime.

However, Central coach Paul Nahu said his players were never intimidated by their opponents.

"I questioned [Central's] intensity at halftime as well and no way were they intimidated or felt physically dominated. Probably in the end it was our execution and our options weren't there."

Nahu said in the end it was more a lack of game time together which was the side's undoing.

"It's pretty hard in terms of buildup. We haven't had any games together, so a game under the belt would've made a big difference. But no excuses, we were outplayed in the end."

To their credit, the home side lifted for the second half, scoring two tries to Morgan Harper and Hutana Coffin. But it was Country halfback Derek Hay's ability to put his big men into space which did the biggest damage, Bridge said of his side.

"He's a good young bloke, a good talker and worked outside and around the paddock well. So that's what we wanted from him and he came through."

In the other match of the day, the New South Wales under-18 side were equally impressive in beating their opponents 40-22.

The Bay of Plenty 15s beat their Hawke's Bay counterparts 34-20 at Puketawhero Park yesterday.

Scorers; NSW Country 30 (S Ngu 3, H Wolfgang, J Dennedy, D Hay, R Garrick tries; J Ehsman con) UCZ 8 ( M Harper, H Coffin tries). Halftime: 16-0.