Packer full of praise for the Blue Boars following bounce back win

Narrabri Rugby Club bounced back from its second loss of the first grade campaign in style on Saturday with a 34-8 win against Scone Brumbies at Dangar Park in the 11th round of the 2022 Central North Rugby Union season.

The Blue Boars went down 45-10 against the first-placed Gunnedah Red Devils two weeks prior before they had a bye in round 10.

Narrabri Rugby Club first XV coach Jake Packer encouraged his men to play for each other following what he described as a rather uncharacteristic performance against Gunnedah, and they certainly did so in their round 11 clash.

Despite defending for a lot of the opening 40 minutes, the Blue Boars led 17-3 at half-time against Scone after Jydon Hill, Will McDonnell and Tom Nolan all crossed for a try and Jacob Nichols kicked a conversion.

Scone hit back with an early try in the second stanza through flanker William Evans, but Narrabri piled on 17 more points as the hosts scored three more tries with Toby Knight, Hamish Moore and Linton Grumley all crossing the stripe. Knight also slotted a conversion to add two extra points.

Packer told The Courier that he liked what he saw from his men during the 26-point victory.

“They really dug deep and played for each other and we fixed the things we wanted to fix after the Gunnedah loss, which was very pleasing,” Packer said.

“It wasn’t the greatest performance though. We could definitely improve our ball control. I thought we were a little bit scrappy in that way.

“But the things we needed to fix, and the things we talked about after our Gunnedah loss, we did.

“Our game awareness at different stages in the game was very good.

“Scone had a lot of ball and a lot of opportunity to score tries. We really had to dig deep, especially in that first 25 minutes. We didn’t have a lot of ball in that first 25. We dropped some ball and we weren’t really clinical.

“But we weathered the storm and that was something that we talked about – knowing that when we’ve got pressure on us, all we need to do is
focus on defence, and then when we get a chance we need to take it to gain a bit of momentum back.

“That’s exactly what we did. We really defended well, and then when we got our chance we put two late tries on to really sort of hurt them. That was really pleasing.

“I thought everyone had a strong game and there was no real standout. That’s how you want to be. I think that when we play our best footy it’s hard to pick one standout because there is so many of them.

“Everyone played good footy and I found it really hard to give the three, two, ones.

“Sam Knight did end up getting the three points though. He played really well and did a lot of things off the ball that were really good. His defence was good, he had a lot of good runs, he was at the breakdown and his communication seemed real good out there.”

Packer said that he was also pleased to return to Dangar Park and “finally play some footy again” following just two games in a five-week period that included two byes and the June long weekend break.

The victory was Narrabri’s sixth from eight attempts in 2022 and saw the Blue Boars remain in second place on the competition ladder.

Their bonus point victory meant that they remained just five points adrift of Gunnedah after the first-placed side also earned five points on Saturday as it sat out with its second bye in as many weeks.

Pirates remained hot on Narrabri’s heels with a bonus point victory of their own. They scored a 32-25 home ground win against the Moree Bulls, which saw them not only remain three points behind Narrabri in third but also become the new holders of the Kookaburra Challenge Cup after the Bulls failed to defend it in their first attempt at doing so.

Fourth-placed Inverell had a bye in round 11 and moved six points clear of the fifth-placed Moree, while sixth-placed Walcha Rams kept their top-four hopes alive with a 38-19 home ground win against seventh-placed Quirindi Lions.

Scone remained last following its loss at Dangar Park.

Meanwhile, Narrabri Rugby Club’s second grade side produced its third shutout victory in the 2022 campaign when it scored an 11-0 win against Scone in the final game of the day on Saturday.

Blue Boars captain Toby Keys scored all 11 points in that match with a first half try and two penalty goals late in the second half as his side remained in fourth place on the ladder after its seventh win in 10 matches.

Narrabri is now five points behind first-placed Moree and three behind the second-placed Pirates and third-placed Gunnedah. Pirates beat Moree 22-10 at home on Saturday, while Gunnedah scored a 33-22 win away from home against sixth-placed Barraba/Gwydir.

Seventh-placed Quirindi Lions beat the last-placed Walcha Rams 43-24 in Walcha in the other match, while fifth-placed Inverell had the bye.

Scone remained in eighth place on the nine-team ladder following its loss against Narrabri.

The Blue Boars’ women’s 10s team was also victorious on Saturday when it outscored Scone 82-10.

Narrabri Rugby Club will now travel to Quirindi in all three grades this Saturday in the 12th round of the campaign.