Narrabri reaches 14s decider

The Narrabri Junior Rugby Club’s under-14s team will have the chance to win back-to-back titles when it lines up in the 2019 under-14s North West Regional Youth Rugby Competition grand final on Friday.

The Blue Boars will take on Calrossy in that match which will be played at Scully Park in Tamworth.

The Blue Boars finished first on the competition ladder following an undefeated 2019 season and challenged fourth-placed Farrer on Friday at Dangar Park.

The Narrabri boys opened the scoring in the third minute of that game before going on to score a 27-15 victory.

It was Don Watkins who crossed for that first try for the home team when he dived over five in from touch on the left edge.

Sid Harvey missed a tricky conversion and the score remained 5-0.

In the ninth minute Ashton Smith almost doubled his team’s lead.

He received a pass after the home side fed a scrum 10 out from the tryline, and he ran past two defenders and set his sights on the tryline, but as he dived over a Farrer defender forced him to drop the ball with a try-saving tackle.

With nine minutes remaining in the first half the Narrabri boys would not be denied as the home side went over down the left side again.

This time it was winger Brock Mallows who scored for the hosts after running onto a pass 30 metres out from the line and racing over to score in the left corner.

Jarmal Zarka attempted the tricky conversion from the sideline and almost added the extras but his well-struck shot cannoned back out off the crossbar.

In the 19th minute of the game the visitors attacked inside their attacking 22 for the first time in the contest and capitalised, scoring a try to narrow the deficit to five points as the scoreboard displayed a 10-5 lead to Narrabri.

The Blue Boars’ kick-off to restart play did not go 10 metres so Farrer fed a scrum on halfway, but the home side quickly won back possession.

The Blue Boars entered their attacking 10 metres and then quickly restored the 10-point lead when Josh Briggs ran onto a pin-point Bernard O’Connor pass to dive over into the right corner to score Narrabri’s third.

Jarmal had another conversion attempt from the sideline to extend the lead but again his attempt struck the crossbar and he was denied.

That was almost the final play of the half which saw the home side enter the break with a 15-5 lead.

When play restarted Farrer dominated possession and field position for the first seven minutes of the half.

With 17 minutes remaining in the 50-minute match the visitors finally capitalised, scoring their second try this time off the back of a scrum which they fed 10 metres out from the line.

But Farrer could not add the extras off the boot so the score remained 15-10 after the conversion attempt.

With 15-and-a-half minutes remaining play was delayed while trainers treated an injured Farrer player on-field.

Soon after play restarted the Blue Boars moved in front by 12 points when Jarmal converted a Josh Briggs try.

Josh bagged his second of the game when he took possession of the ball on the attacking 22 on the left edge before racing down the sideline and cutting in to gift Jarmal the simplest of kicks from right in front.

That made the score 22-10 and put Narrabri in the driver’s seat.

The majority of the final 15 minutes saw Narrabri defending deep in its own half but the side almost held Farrer out until full time arrived.

But with one minute and seven seconds remaining Farrer crossed for a try in the left corner which it could not convert, making the score 22-15.

The Blue Boars kicked the following kick off out on the full and Farrer chose to feed a scrum on halfway.

After the full time siren sounded Narrabri’s Harry Bennett won his side possession by stealing the ball with a brilliant contest in the ruck.

Instead of kicking out to signal full time the home side ran the ball and spread it right to Josh Briggs on the sideline who raced 25 metres to dive over for his hat trick which made the full time score 27-15.