Narrabri Blue Boars suffer second loss of the CNRU campaign

Narrabri Rugby Club’s first XV let their minor premiership and Kookaburra Challenge Cup hopes slip away on Saturday when they were narrowly beaten 24-22 on home soil at Dangar Park by the Inverell Highlanders in round 16 of the Central North Rugby Union season.

The visitors led 10-3 at half-time and then went ahead 17-3 early in the second stanza in what were wet and muddy conditions. The Blue Boars found themselves behind 24-17 with 10 minutes remaining before skipper Will McDonnell scored his second try of the contest with eight minutes to go.

The home side missed a conversion attempt to lock the scores up and then a penalty goal with three minutes left to go ahead. McDonnell almost won the game with seconds to go as he made a late break, but he was brought down by a brilliant tackle 10 metres out from the line as some desperate Inverell defence ensured they left Dangar Park with the four points.

They also returned home with the Kookaburra Challenge Cup, which Narrabri have held since they beat the Highlanders 34-19 in Inverell back in May in round seven.

A match-winning try would have seen Narrabri earn the bonus point victory they needed to keep their minor premiership hopes alive after the top-ranked Moree Bulls went down 22-21 in their round 16 match at home against Tamworth, but first place is now Moree’s as they will pick up eight points from two byes across the final two rounds of the regular season and can no longer be caught.

The Blue Boars’ coach Craig Gleeson said that placing second and beating Moree in the major semi-final to earn a home grand final was his side’s new goal, but admitted they will have to improve ahead of two tricky match-ups across the next two weekends as they travel away to Quirindi in round 17 and then host Pirates in round 18.

Gleeson said he and his men were disappointed with Saturday’s loss on ladies’ day.

“It was pretty disappointing. We started really flat and we didn’t improve at all during the first half, I think,” Gleeson said.

“To take a positive out of it though, I thought our defence was really good. The amount of ball they had, to not be too far behind at half-time I thought was quite a good effort from the boys with their defence.

“We turned a lot of ball over in bad field position, but the boys absorbed a lot of that, and I was quite proud of their effort in defence.

“The last 25 minutes was positive. We started doing what we had talked about doing in the first half a lot better, and the points came from that.”

Inverell opened the scoring when outside centre Sakaraia Koroi crossed for a try that Harry King converted to make the score 7-0. King then kicked the Highlanders out to a 10-0 lead when he slotted a penalty goal, but Narrabri hit back with three points of their own as Todd Nichols kicked a penalty goal about five minutes out from half-time that reduced the deficit to three.

Inverell went into the break ahead 10-3 and made it 17-3 early in the second stanza when flanker Lawson Muir went over for the second try of the day and King converted again.

Gleeson made several personnel changes midway through the second half, and two in particular made a significant impact as Hamish Nolan and Nathan Nott made some brilliant runs to get Narrabri on the front foot. Nott eventually scored the home side’s first try of the day and Nichols converted it as the score became 17-10, but the Highlanders hit back almost immediately as the Blue Boars fumbled the kick-off and Koroi crossed for his second try of the game before King kicked the visitors out to a 24-10 lead.

McDonnell then bagged a double to get Narrabri within striking distance, and Nichols kicked the first goal but missed the second from the sideline as the score became 24-22.

Narrabri won a penalty 25 metres out and about 15 metres to the right of the right post with three minutes to go, but Nichols dragged his kick from a tricky position to the left.

Narrabri received possession from the ensuing drop-out and McDonnell nearly completed his hat-trick with what would have been the winning try, but Inverell defended desperately and got the job done.

Narrabri earned a bonus point for losing by a margin of seven points or less and finished the weekend on 63 points. Moree (68) and Tamworth (60) are either side of them while Quirindi (47) round out the top four. Inverell (47) are now in a two-horse race alongside the Lions in the battle for fourth, while Gunnedah (38) and Scone (30) are sixth and seventh.

Narrabri won by forfeit in second grade on Saturday as Inverell did not have the numbers available to travel with two teams.

In the two second grade games played, Moree downed Tamworth 29-14 and Gunnedah beat Barraba 20-5.

Moree have now wrapped up the minor premiership in that division as well as they moved to 71 points, with Quirindi (64), Tamworth (63) and Narrabri (59) also locked in to play finals footy as Scone (34), Barraba (26), Gunnedah (26) and Inverell (25) sit too far back.

Narrabri can still finish second if they beat Quirindi and Pirates across the final two rounds of the regular season.

Narrabri’s women’s side has already secured the minor premiership in the tens competition and they moved to 69 points following their round 16 bye.

Second-placed Tamworth Pirates and third-placed Gunnedah are now both 12 points behind with 57 after Pirates outscored Moree 38-12 and the Red Devils shut out Barraba 27-0 to both earn bonus point victories. Barraba (43), Moree (35) and Scone (34) make up the bottom three.