‘Take the five points and go home’: Blue Boars get the job done in Scone

Narrabri Rugby Club’s first grade side extended their impressive winning streak to eight games on Saturday but it was far from their best performance as they travelled to Scone and took down the Brumbies 36-17 in round 13 of the Central North Rugby Union campaign.

The Blue Boars had a one-man advantage for 10 minutes in the first half but found themselves behind 10-7 in the 33rd minute. However, they fired up and went into half-time with a 19-10 lead before outscoring the hosts 17 points to seven in the second stanza.

Narrabri outscored Scone six tries to three and three conversions to one as they earned all five points on offer to remain four points adrift of second-placed Moree Bulls, who also earned five points when they beat Gunnedah Red Devils 40-0 away from home.

The other round 13 contest saw Quirindi score a 45-29 win away from home against Inverell to jump above the Highlanders into fourth place, while third-placed Tamworth Pirates had the bye and finished the weekend nine points adrift of Narrabri.

While the Blue Boars’ coach Craig Gleeson was thrilled to get the win and take five valuable points home to Narrabri ahead of back-to-back byes across the next two weekends, he knew his men had a lot more to offer in terms of a performance.

“It wasn’t one of our strongest performances of the year, I would say,” Gleeson said.

“We were quite disjointed and our structure went out the window. We tended to make some good ground, and then we’d throw a miracle ball out the back and put ourselves under pressure.

“I thought to be up at half-time with the wind against us and running uphill was quite an effort, but then we didn’t play in the second half how we wanted to either.

“It was just one of those games. I said to the boys, ‘let’s take the five points and go home’. That’s why we came here. We move forward now.

“I thought we exited better than we have for quite a bit today, but we were average in a lot of areas.

“We did enough to win though.”

Both sides found it difficult to find any rhythm or momentum due to an abundance of penalties and dropped ball that disturbed the flow of the match.

“There was no flow in the game,” Gleeson said.

“Not blaming the referee, but when the flow is taken out of the game, it’s very hard to get any sort of continuity happening. That did slow us down a little bit today.

“It probably wasn’t the greatest spectacle.”

Despite what was a sub-par team performance by the Blue Boars’ high standards, their coach was proud of what the club achieved on the day as the visitors also won in the women’s tens and second grade games to earn their second clean sweep in as many weeks and pick up all 15 points on offer.

“It’s never an easy trip coming down here. We’ve got a fair few injuries in reserve grade, so to come down here and get the points in all three grades is rewarding for the club as a whole.”

It was Scone who struck first in the main game as they went over for a try on the 10-minute mark. The majority of the play up until that point was contested in the middle third, but the hosts managed to camp themselves on Narrabri’s tryline and make the breakthrough by spreading the ball from the right all the way to the left to winger Richard Thew who crossed to make the score 5-0.

Narrabri won the ball back after the kick-off and made the most of their best field possession of the game as Todd Nichols put Jydon Hill through a hole and the fullback found halfback Charlie Radford, who was supporting on the inside and went over to score between the sticks. Nichols kicked Narrabri out to a 7-5 lead but Scone hit back in the 16th minute when they got through down their left edge again as inside centre Zac Miller scored to put the hosts in front 10-7.

Scone were temporarily reduced to 14 men when five-eighth Jack Thomas was yellow-carded for a high tackle in the 20th minute, but Narrabri could not capitalise on that as consistent breaks in play for penalties made it tough to gain momentum and take advantage.

The Blue Boars still trailed by three points until there were six minutes left in the half. They were relentlessly attacking the Scone tryline and the pressure finally took its toll when Will Turner forced his way into the in-goal and grounded the ball to put his side in front 12-10.

Narrabri earned another chance to have a crack at the Brumbies’ defence with just two minutes to go before the break when they won a scrum 40 out from the line, and they were able to get over as skipper Will McDonnell broke the defensive line on the 22 and passed back inside to a supporting Ciesiolka who carried Scone’s halfback Shuki Konishi over the tryline on his back to score Narrabri’s third. Nichols then added the extras with a kick from centre-field to make the half-time score 19-10 in the Narrabri Blue Boars’ favour.

Scone struck first again in the second stanza with a try off the back of a slick scrum play that saw Miller go over for his second. The home side’s fullback Darcy Moore added the extras as the score became 19-17.

But once again, Narrabri hit back almost immediately as they earned possession back quickly off the kick-off. McDonnell put on some fancy footwork 10 out from the line and dazzled the Scone defence before he got over to score Narrabri’s fourth of the day, earning them a bonus point and putting them ahead 24-17.

The Blue Boars extended their lead on the hour-mark when Nichols crossed in the right corner to make it 29-17, and Radford put the icing on the cake in the 79th minute when he scored the visitors’ sixth try off the back of a scrum from close range, with Nichols adding the extras to make the final score 36-17.

Gleeson thought that Radford was Narrabri’s standout following a two-try effort and delivering consistently brilliant service throughout the game, and he also thought that forward duo Jack Maunder and Jake Rumsby impressed as well.

The Narrabri men now have two weekends off to freshen up as they sit out with back-to-back byes. They will return to the field on Saturday, July 27, when they host Inverell at Dangar Park, which will kick off a three-game run home towards the three-week finals series.

The Blue Boars will travel to Quirindi to challenge the Lions in round 17 on August 3 before hosting Tamworth Pirates in the final round of the regular season on August 10.