A brave Narrabri Blue Boars side fell just short of what would have been one of the great comebacks in club history as they lost 33-31 against the Moree Bulls in the final round of the Central North Rugby Union campaign on Saturday.
The Blue Boars travelled to Weebolla Oval for the round 14 clash, and despite outscoring the Bulls five tries to four, they went down by two points as penalty goals helped Moree win the battle for second place.
The defending champions stunned the hosts early on as they led 19-0 after 21 minutes, but Moree had hit back to trail 19-17 by half-time and then lead 33-19 with 17 minutes remaining.
Narrabri’s captain Will McDonnell and the returning Josh Schwager crossed for late tries for the Blue Boars, but they fell just short and were forced to settle for fourth place on the ladder as their home grand final hopes slipped away.
Coach Craig Gleeson was proud of his side’s effort and execution on the day, but admitted the 10 minutes prior to half time and the first 20 minutes after the break were not good enough and cost them the contest.
“I thought when we held the ball, we looked dangerous every time and we looked like we would score points. That was pretty evident in that first 25 minutes and then in the last 10 or so when we were pushing for the win,” Gleeson said.
“Possession proved massive for both sides in the end, I think.
“There were probably opportunities there to kick penalty goals, which we didn’t, and that was something we reflected on after the game with Willo (McDonnell) and myself with how we go about making those decisions. I think we have a better plan moving forward with that.
“Moree were slotting penalties, even when they were behind, to keep accumulating points, and it benefited them in the long run.
“I think our first 30 minutes of the game was as good a footy we’ve played since I’ve been involved. It was so clinical and we were really happy with how we put that first half-an-hour together.
“The next 30 minutes, we undid a bit of that work with some of our poorest execution as far as our structure goes.
“I think if we could have played for 50 minutes the way we did in that first 30, we would have played them out of the game, but we slackened off a bit there.
“The positive was that when we played to our structure and our plan, they couldn’t match us.”
It was Sam Knight who opened the scoring for Narrabri in the 10th minute when he collected a short and sharp Nathan Nott pass out of the ruck just inside his attacking 22 and charged through a huge hole in the Moree defence before running away to go over just to the right of the uprights.
Matt Bradshaw added the extras to make the score 7-0, which became 14-0 six minutes later as Bradshaw converted a McDonnell stunner. It was Joe Baker who set that try up after bumping three Moree players deep in Blue Boars territory before fooling and beating Mitchell Adams with a slick dummy and eventually passing inside to McDonnell when he was met by a retreating defender.
Narrabri went up by 19 in the 21st minute when a rolling maul off the back of a lineout close to the tryline saw their forward back prove too strong for Moree’s, with Will Turner credited the try in his first start since round two and his second game back from a long injury layoff.
Moree managed tries through Lachlan Smith in the 32nd minute and Asesela Ravuvu in the 36th, both of which Ben Williams kicked to make the score 19-14, and it became 19-17 as Williams kicked a penalty goal to end the first half.
The Blue Boars were forced to play the first 10 minutes of the second stanza a man down after Jack Maunder was yellow-carded for the penalty that led to that late penalty goal, and Gleeson thought the visitors could have handled that period much better.
They only conceded three points while down to 14 as Williams slotted a 47th-minute penalty goal as the hosts took their first lead of the game, but he then scored a 55th-minute try and kicked another penalty goal in the 58th minute to put Moree in front 28-19 with 20 minutes left to play.
A Holt Cubis try in the 63rd minute put Moree out in front by 14 points as Narrabri needed two converted tries to go level. While they managed two tries through Schwager and McDonnell, they missed the first of the two conversions and fell two points short.
Even if they had kicked the first one, there was no time for Moree to kick off after Schwager had converted McDonnell’s final-second try as the Bulls held on to prevail 33-31 and finish ranked second on the ladder to qualify for the major semi-final against Gunnedah.
Meanwhile, the Blue Boars scraped into fourth place on the CNRU second grade ladder as well despite a loss in Moree on Saturday.
Nathan Nott’s men were beaten 48-14 by the Bulls, but a shock Inverell upset helped Narrabri secure fourth spot as the Highlanders beat the fifth-placed Barraba Rams 33-19.
Narrabri will meet Pirates in the reserve grade minor semi-final in Quirindi this Saturday, and the minor premiers Moree will tackle Quirindi in the major semi-final in Gunnedah a week later.
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