Narrabri Rugby Club’s first XV has set up a mouth-watering top-of-the-table contest with the Gunnedah Red Devils this Saturday which will more than likely decide which of the two top-ranked teams will be crowned Central North Rugby Union’s 2021 minor premiers and go on to host the August 28 qualifying finals.
Both clubs were winners in round 16, with Gunnedah victorious 19-17 away from home against Scone and Narrabri storming home late to defeat the Moree Bulls 52-26 at Dangar Park.
The Blue Boars’ bonus point victory saw them move within two points of the Red Devils with just two rounds remaining in the regular season, meaning the Narrabri men will play to wrap up the minor premiership in front of a home crowd against last-placed Barraba in round 18 should they get the job done this weekend.
Narrabri outscored Moree eight tries to four and six conversions to three in their 26-point win in round 16 on Saturday.
The hosts led 21-14 at half-time after Jydon Hill converted a Jimmy Schwager try in the seventh minute, a Henri Knight try in the 11th minute and a Jack Radford try in the 39th minute.
Moree scored two converted tries of their own to lock the score up at 14-all before Radford put the Blue Boars back in front just before the bell, but the visitors equalised again with another converted try minutes after play restarted.
But Narrabri’s match fitness combined with its dominance at the set piece, especially in the scrum, saw the home side dominate the final quarter of the contest.
Matt McDonnell scored the Blue Boars’ fourth five-pointer on the hour-mark after the home side fed a scrum seven metres out from the line and forced Moree all the way back into its in-goal.
The Blue Boars went over four minutes later off the back of another scrum and two huge runs made by Matt and Will McDonnell, with skipper Sam Knight offloading to fellow forward Sam Spanton who dived over to score his first try of the season.
Hill then made the score 33-21 with his fourth conversion of the game.
Moree hit back with a 68th-minute try to earn a bonus point, but as far as the scoreline was concerned it was merely a consolation.
Jimmy Schwager and Matt McDonnell both scored their second tries of the game in the final 10 minutes, both of which Hill converted to make the score 47-26.
The hosts then had possession when the full-time siren sounded and chose to have a crack at surpassing 50 points rather than kicking the ball out and settle for a 21-point win.
Narrabri’s leading try-scorer Hill got the job done as he beat three defenders during a 15-metre run on his way to scoring his side’s eighth try of the day to make the final score 52-26.
Blue Boars coach Hunter Harley told The Courier that his men were impressive in patches during their 11th win of the season.
“I think there were patches of footy there that were probably as good as we’ve played all year,” Harley said.
“The patches we were good, we were very, very good.
“There were also some patches we definitely need improving on. We need to be more consistent for the full 80 (minutes).
“Overall I’m happy, I just know we can do better.
“We started off 14-0 up but next thing they were back in the game at 14-all just before half-time.
“We made silly errors and started going away from our structure and what works for us and we started playing too cute.
“We need to go forward and then earn the right to go wide rather than dance around.”
The hosts certainly did that in the second half as the Blue Boars’ forward pack overpowered Moree’s time and time again in the final 40 minutes of the match.
One area Harley was happiest with during the round 16 contest was the scrum.
“I haven’t seen Narrabri scrum like that for a very, very long time and I don’t think I’ve ever coached a side, going back to 2013, where we’ve had a scrum as good as what we’ve had the past two weeks,” he said.
“It was very pleasing that.
“When you’ve got go-forward it creates opportunities for your backs and your halfback, it creates attacking opportunities.
“A dominant scrum can be a little bit demoralising for oppositions so I’m very happy with the front row’s performance.”
The Blue Boars coach was impressed with the way his men finished significantly stronger than their opposition as they outscored the Bulls 31-5 in the final 20 minutes of the match.
He attributed that to fitness and depth within the senior squad, especially in the forwards.
“Our fitness is paying off in the back end of games but I also thought we had some quality players come on in Joe Maunder and Todd Farrer who were able to give us that pick up and bring it home sort of thing,” Harley said.
“It really helps when you’ve got a quality bench.
“Joe is a quality front-rower and was back from holidays but I couldn’t get him into the game earlier than I did because our scrum was so dominant.
“You need four quality front-rowers and we have depth in that area which is giving us potency in the back end of games.”
Meanwhile, Narrabri Rugby Club lost its second grade game 21-15 against Moree which saw the two sides finish locked on 58 points with two rounds remaining.
Narrabri is the higher-ranked of the two sides as it has more wins and the fourth-placed Blue Boars can finish as high as second if they defeat Gunnedah in round 17 this Saturday.
The club’s women’s sevens side played at the Pirates gala day in round 16 where they went down 26-7 and 29-12 against Pirates and Inverell respectively.
That competition will break this weekend before Narrabri hosts the final gala day of the season in round 18 on Saturday, August 14.
However, the Blue Boars’ sevens team will play two friendly games against Gunnedah this weekend when the clubs’ first and second grade sides meet in Gunnedah.
Dangar Park also hosted a third grade game on Saturday which was won 12-7 by the Blue Boars.
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