All Golds v Hemel Stags KPL1S 2017 Final

FIVE YEARS OF
THE GOLDEN FERN
WRITTEN BY GEORGE COWBURN
6
In the good old days of the USSR there was
a five year plan for just about everything. I’m
not sure what the All Golds’ five year plan
was but at the end of their fifth season in
senior rugby league I thought it appropriate
the look back at the first match for the
Golden Fern especially as it was against
today’s opponents Hemel Stags.
Back then to Sunday March 3rd 2013 and our
first match in the Northern Rail Cup against
the Stags before a crowd of 256 plus rugby
league luminaries such as Ralph Rimmer,
chief operations officer of the Rugby
League, Niel Wood, chief communications
director, and Dennis Betts ex Wigan and
Great Britain player and present Widnes
Vikings coach.
The All Golds team that day was:- Phil
Cowburn, James Gahan, Callum Mulkeen,
Tim Bergin, Maxime Claustres, James
Greene, Matt Bradley, Mike Stewart, Rory
Sharratt, James Walter, Joe Maclean,
Richard Jones, Jordan Rice and Subs Sam
Blaney, Marcus Brooker, Jamie Crowther
and Tyla Hepi (son of head coach Brad
Hepi).
Fourteen of those players graduated from
the successful 2012 student champions of
Great Britain All Golds squad and for them
it was a huge leap into competitive senior
rugby league.
Some fell by the wayside but happily four
of that team have played for the Golden
Fern this season (messrs Cowburn, Walter,
Maclean and Jones) with the first three
clocking up a full five years service for the
club and Phil Cowburn recently passing the
one hundred appearances mark.
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