Scoreless second half leads to Blue Boars’ first loss of the CNRU season

Narrabri Blue Boars’ first grade head coach Craig Gleeson thought his men beat themselves on Saturday as they lost 24-17 against the Gunnedah Red Devils at Dangar Park.

The Blue Boars had a lot to play for as they lined up looking for a clean sweep on ladies’ day following three Narrabri wins earlier in the day, and it was also their first competition game at home since they claimed the 2024 CNRU first grade premiership at the venue in August last year.

They went into the half-time break with a 17-12 lead but failed to fire in the second stanza as the Gunnedah men scored an equalising five-pointer in the 64th minute and a winning try in the 78th to win their first game of the two-week-old season and inflict Narrabri’s first loss.

Gleeson told The Courier that the players did not replicate their efforts from a round one away victory against Quirindi, and he also took some of the responsibility for the loss as well.

“It was a disappointing first hitout at home for us,” Gleeson said.

“I thought our preparation through the week was really good, but then from the warm-up it didn’t feel right. Everyone was quite flat and that was taken out onto the field.

“There were some good periods in the first 10 minutes but we failed to take advantage of them and get any points on the board.

“We just floated through the game. There were plenty of turnovers and we just didn’t really have the intent we needed to.

“In that second half we were very flat. We didn’t have a lot of energy at all. When we really needed to lift we just didn’t.

“We spoke many times throughout the week about needing to have that intent and we didn’t put it together at all to be honest.

“When it mattered, we stayed in the same bad habits and bad patterns. We just couldn’t seem to change them.

“I need to take a bit of responsibility as well. I didn’t have enough alternate plans in that second half. We just kept going back to what wasn’t working. I think we really could have looked at adding a couple of layers to what we were doing or just going in a different direction.

“All in all, a disappointing day for us in first grade. I thought we had a really strong performance the week before but we probably took a couple of steps backwards this week.

“At the end of the day, it’s really hard to take but it’s better to realise all of those things now than at the end of the season.”

Gleeson thought that despite the poor team effort, there were several players who produced impressive individual efforts.

He said Joe Baker was one of the Narrabri players who should have been proud of his performance, and it was the outside centre who set up the home side’s first try and scored their second himself.

Gunnedah fullback James Perrett crossed for the first try of the game in the 15th minute and his teammate Adrian Burl kicked the conversion to give the visitors a 7-0 lead, but the Blue Boars then piled on three tries to go ahead 17-7.

Baker made a powerful run down the right edge inside the attacking 22 and was too strong for the Gunnedah defence before offloading to winger Nick Tomlinson, who crossed a few metres in from touch.

The vice-captain made another line-break a few minutes later and this time scored himself after bouncing up off the grass following an ankle tap and beating another attempted tackle to cross for Narrabri’s second try.

Joe Maunder then dived over just right of the right upright following a few tough carries from the forwards close to the line, and a Toby Knight conversion put Narrabri ahead by 10 points.

Perrett reduced that deficit to 10 in the 36th minute as his second try of the contest made the half-time score 17-12.

The Red Devils pushed hard for an equaliser in the second stanza and it came in the 64th minute when Tim McDermott crossed for his side’s third try of the contest.

The score remained locked at 17-all and it looked like it might have stayed that way as the clock ticked down to nearly full-time, but the Gunnedah men scored the match-winning try in 78th minute through hooker Gabriel Mahuingato earn a hard-fought bonus point victory. Burl then added the extras and the Red Devils wound down the clock after play restarted to score their first win of the season.

The Blue Boars lost Tom Nolan to injury before the game and lost Sam Spanton and Will Turner during the match, with Todd Nichols and Linton Grumley already out injured and Will Ciesiolka away, but Gleeson is hoping that they will all be back on deck for the Blue Boars’ next match.

They get four weeks off before they host Tamworth Pirates at Dangar Park as they have a club bye, a Country Championships bye and a Barraba fixture bye across the coming three weekends.

Gleeson said that while it was quite frustrating that his side will not get a chance to put Saturday’s loss behind them until May 31, a positive of the break is that they will get a chance to heal and get themselves ready both physically and mentally for a tough clash against the Pirates.

Five of the six CNRU teams have now scored a win after two rounds of action in 2025. Narrabri, Gunnedah, Quirindi and Pirates have all won once and lost once, while first-placed Moree Bulls have a win and a bye to their name.

Inverell are the only team not to have won following an opening-round loss and a round two bye. They will play for the Kookaburra Challenge Cup on home soil in round three when they host Quirindi, after the Lions won it off the Pirates with a convincing 41-19 victory on Saturday.