RUGBY UNION
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Illawarra ended 11 years of frustrating near misses by claiming the NSW Country Championship on Sunday at Bowral.
After eliminating 2014 champions Central West with 14-3 win in Saturday's semi-final, the Illawarriors accounted for traditional rivals Newcastle 24-14 in the final.
Illawarra last held the Caldwell Cup in 2004.
"I'm so proud and pleased for the boys because they worked hard throughout the campaign," Warriors coach Shaun McCreedy said. "We came with a goal and they stuck to their guns. Today we grafted out some hard slog football and just kept on working for each other."
Illawarra led 6-0 after a pair of penalty goals before Newcastle forged ahead 7-6 with a converted try. The Warriors responded with more points and took a 14-7 lead into half-time.
The score swelled to 24-7 before the Novocastrians cut the deficit to 10 with 10 minutes remaining.
But the Illawarriors would not be denied, providing long-serving captain Gavin Holder with the perfect parting gift from the representative rugby scene.
"There's a few of them who've been through some campaigns and I suppose the big one is Gavin. This is something he's been after for a long time," McCreedy said.
"It's been 11 years since Illawarra did it and it's good to be able to send him out having finally won the Country championship.
"It took all 23 players that played today to get us over the line. The impact players came on and played a major role."
Illawarra number eight Paul Tuala capped a successful weekend by capturing Player of the Game honours in the final.
McCreedy said the Warriors gained a "quiet confidence" after the hard-fought victory over Central West on a rain-soaked ground.
"They weren't over-excited. They were calm and took it easy, because we knew we hadn't achieved anything winning yesterday," he said.
"Their focus was on today. That was the big one. We knew we couldn't play with a lot of width because of the wet, muddy conditions, but we executed with ball in hand and played down the right end of the park and applied pressure."
McCreedy said seeing the Warriors crowned Country champions was on a par with guiding University to last year's Illawarra Rugby premiership.
"I'd be lying if I said it wasn't," he said.
"Coaching at this level is different because you've only got a short amount of time to mould them into a unit and get them to believe in each other and in the system that you put in front of them.
"The satisfying part for me was knowing they'd done everything they could when they walked off that field, and in doing that they got the result."
The Illawarriors celebrated their triumph with a team function at Camden Rugby Club.