Narrabri Blue Boars retain the Hannaford-Southwell Shield with a winning try after the bell

It wasn’t exactly pretty, but Narrabri Rugby Club retained the prestigious Hannaford-Southwell Shield in front of a home crowd at Dangar Park on Saturday night when the Blue Boars defeated the St Albert’s College first XV 33-29 following a thrilling finale in the memorial match.

The hosts left it late as a Lachlan Burtenshaw try about two minutes after the clock had ticked over to zeros secured the victory for the Narrabri men as they retained the shield with their third victory over the Armidale-based University of New England team in as many years.

The match is contested annually by the two rugby union clubs in memory of former Blue Boar Brad Hannaford and his girlfriend Felicity Southwell, who tragically died in a car accident back in 2006.

It is a special one for the Narrabri club, and the Blue Boars’ first grade coach Jake Packer told The Courier he was proud to retain the shield again while he commended the opposition side.

“It’s very special,” Packer said.

“You can just tell what it means to the town and to both clubs because there was a big crowd there, and it was a great atmosphere.

“I can’t say for sure because I was playing, but I imagine it would have been an exciting game to watch.

“There were a few errors, but it was free-flowing and physical, and to go down to the wire was really good to see.

“It’s a credit to those Albies boys. Years ago, we’d nearly pencil this in as an easy win, but they are getting better and better, and the coaching staff there deserve a lot of credit.

“They are a solid team.”

The match between the two first grade sides was played across three 27-minute thirds in slippery conditions following rain in Narrabri on Thursday and Friday.

The Blue Boars started strongest and went into the first break ahead 14-0 as they took advantage of running with the wind behind them by notching two converted tries.

Packer, who played at fly-half, scored the first five-pointer of the contest and his teammate Daniel Kahl crossed for the second, while goal-kicker Toby Knight slotted both conversions.

The visitors came out firing in the second period and managed to outscore Narrabri three tries to nothing. They converted one of those as the scoreboard read 17-14 in St Albert’s’ favour at the final break.

The third period of the game was a see-sawing affair as the lead changed five times.

Packer scored his second try of the match to edge Narrabri ahead 19-17, but Albies hit back with a try to restore their three-point lead and make the score 22-19.

That became 26-22 when Knight converted Kahl’s second try of the contest, but the Albies men refused to go away and they hit back with a converted try of their own to go ahead 29-26 with about seven minutes left to play.

That was still the score with just 30 seconds remaining as the Blue Boars won a penalty 40 metres out from the Albies line and kicked into touch.

The game looked done and dusted when the visitors won the ball from the lineout, however, Narrabri then quickly won the ball back and they got another penalty 30 metres out.

Packer contemplated opting for the penalty goal and levelling the score to retain the shield but was encouraged by his teammates to go for the win.

It was a decision that paid off as the Blue Boars retained possession out of the scrum and then set themselves up on the Albies line before Burtenshaw scooped up the ball out of the ruck and charged over to score the winner.

Knight then slotted his fourth goal of the day to make the final score 33-29.

The Blue Boars went into the match without premiership-winning halves duo Tom Nolan and Morgan Jones, as well as the 2023 CNRU grand final man-of-the-match Will McDonnell and key forward Will Turner.

There were also several players that took the field who were short of a run, having not spent much time on the training paddock, and the windy and wet conditions also proved to be quite a challenge.

With those factors in mind, Packer was pleased with the result and his side’s determination and willingness to grind out the win, but he could not say the same regarding the Blue Boars’ overall performance.

“What I’m most happy with is that we got the win, that we found a way to win it because that’s really what premiership-winning sides do.

“In regards to anything else, I thought we played horrendous.

“It is our first game of the year, so it’s fair enough, but we didn’t play well at all.

“But in saying that, I said to the boys after the game that this was why we won the premiership, because good teams find a way to win when they’re not playing well.

“If you can win without playing well, you’re doing well.

“The mindset of being willing to fight ’til the end and doing whatever it takes to win, you can’t coach that, you either have that mindset or you don’t, and we have that mindset.

“If there’s a sniff that we can win a game, we’ll win the game, and that showed because we really shouldn’t have won that game, but we did.”

Despite his disappointment with the way his men played as a group, the Blue Boars coach praised two players for their individual efforts on the night.

They were Portuguese scrum-half Luis Salvado, who played his first game for the club after recently arriving in Australia to work for Blue Boar Todd Farrer, and Wee Waa man Josh Schwager, who played for Narrabri for the first time since juniors and was a standout at number eight for the hosts.

The Blue Boars will have one final pre-season hitout ahead of the 2023 Central North Rugby Union campaign when they head to Coffs Harbour this Friday night for a match against the Snappers.

The CNRU season will get underway on Saturday, April 15. The Blue Boars’ first game will be away from home in Walcha a week later after they sit out with the round one bye.