RUGBY UNION
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THE giant-killing Pythons of Canowindra against the undefeated, formidable Rams of Blayney, facing off in the GrainCorp Cup Southern division grand final.
It sounds like the plot of an awful sports movie - probably starring a B-grade actor like Kevin Bacon - but regardless, tomorrow’s decider at King George Oval is a clash of David versus Goliath proportions.
After finishing fifth the unassuming Pythons won three consecutive sudden-death finals to make the decider, while the all-conquering Rams have only played once in that period, demolishing West Wyalong in the major semi-final.
All things considered the two men at the centre of everything, Canowindra and Blayney’s respective halfbacks Will Ryan and Anthony Salmon, agreed it would take a brave man to predict tomorrow’s result.
“They’re undefeated for a good reason, they’re a well drilled side. We’ll stick it to them and hope for the best,” Ryan said.
“We always know they’re going to be tough ... they’ve been on a roll for quite a few weeks,” Salmon added.
Ryan said the battled-hardened Pythons have taken a world of confidence from the last month or so of rugby.
“We’re quietly confident coming in,” he said.
“We’ve had a pretty tough run. We’ve been working up towards Blayney as it were, and I think we’re in a good position.
“Our defence has always been strong, but ball security is a real factor. Blayney turned too much ball over last time we played them.”
VIDEO: Anthony Salmon and Will Ryan share their thoughts on Saturday's game:
On the flip side, Salmon said his side is very comfortable in itself, although he admitted thoughts have turned to the past two years at times - Blayney was beaten in both the 2013 and 2014 grand finals after being heavy favourites leading in.
“Say choke,” Salmon laughed.
“I can’t say we’re not thinking about it or it hasn’t been spoken about, but the guys are trying to play the grand final [tomorrow] and not [tonight].
“We know what we have to do to play well to win, and they know what they have to do.”
“Molong did it to them [the last two years], so we’re hoping to make it a bit of a hoodoo for them, [three] grand finals with no wins,” Ryan added, giggling.
Saturday’s grand final kicks off at 3.15pm, at Blayney’s King George Oval.
BLAYNEY RAMS: 1 Craig Gosewisch, 2 Andrew Delaney, 3 Sam Nixon (c), 4 Liam Murphy, 5 Jack Ryan, 6 Jeremy Kable, 7 Stuart Tait, 8 Brock Syphers, 9 Ant Salmon, 10 Cam Hobby, 11 John Wills, 12 Seb Hobby, 13 Josh Farr, 14 Travis Keen, 15 Sean Toohey.
CANOWINDRA PYTHONS: 1 Jacob Baker, 2 Jack Knight 3, Jordan Irvine, 4 Adam Grant, 5 Adam Nash, 6 Dan Bowd 7 Mick Grant, 8 Craig McKenzie, 9 Will Ryan, 10 Ben Easter, 11 Kenny Turnbull, 12 Ed Price, 13 Sean Wyburn (c), 14 Joe Keady, 15 Luke Watt.