Narrabri Blue Boars earn a fourth-place finish following a two-point loss in Gunnedah

Narrabri Rugby Club’s first XV went down in the 18th and final round of the 2023 Central North Rugby Union campaign on Saturday but managed to do enough to secure a fourth-place finish and give themselves a shot at defending their premiership.

They took on Gunnedah Red Devils away from home and lost 17-15, with both sides scoring three tries but a single Gunnedah conversion splitting the 2022 grand finalists.

Narrabri went into the last round of the season in fourth place, well aware they only needed one bonus point to wrap up that position.

So, when the visitors had the ball 40 metres out from the Gunnedah line as the siren sounded, co-captain Jacob Nichols opted to go the safe option and boot the ball into touch rather than attempt to go for the win.

It was a decision that his Blue Boars coach and teammate Jake Packer was fully supportive of, given that another Gunnedah converted try would have seen Narrabri fail to earn the bonus point for losing the match by seven points or less and sink to a fifth-place finish on the ladder.

The Blue Boars were trailing 10-0 on the half-hour mark on Saturday after Red Devils duo Carter McIlveen and Emori Waqavulagi went over for tries in the opening 20 minutes.

However, Narrabri had found good field position 10 minutes out from the break, and Packer forced his way over to reduce the score to 10-5.

Will McDonnell and Jack Maunder crossed early in the second stanza as the visitors went ahead 15-10, but the Red Devils hit back with 15 minutes to go when the home side’s powerful fullback Waqavulagi went over for his second try of the day.

Cameron Mitchell converted that try to put Gunnedah ahead 17-15, which was the way the score remained at the full-time bell.

Packer thought that his men had much better footy in them but was pleased that they did what they had to to get the job done and book a finals spot.

“I’m very happy, especially when you consider what we were looking at back at the start of the second round of games,” Packer said.

“I thought we were very clunky in that game, though. We didn’t stick to our plan really well.

“But it was a weird day. We had a lot of people out, and Morgan (Jones) was a late scratching because he was sick, so we had to rearrange our team just before the game.

“We had some injuries in the game too, and reserve grade had injuries, so we had guys coming off the bench playing very out of position.

“But we scrapped and did what we had to. We could have kept playing at the end there and put them under a bit of pressure and pulled something off, but it was a smart decision from Nicho (Jacob Nichols) to have a bit of game awareness and put it out.”

Narrabri finished level on 58 points with Quirindi but were ranked higher after winning more games than the Lions in 2023. That same tie-breaker saw the Red Devils clinch second over the Moree Bulls.

Those two teams ended the regular season on 74 points each, three back from the Pirates (77), which won their round 18 game 50-17 to wrap up the minor premiership race and earn the home qualifying final.

Pirates will now host Gunnedah in that match on Saturday, September 9, with the grand final hosting rights on the line.

Narrabri will travel to Weebolla Oval to meet the third-placed Moree Bulls this Saturday. The winner of that match will travel to challenge the loser of the qualifying final in the preliminary final game two weeks later on September 9. The grand final will then be held on Saturday, September 16.

Gunnedah’s win on Saturday also saw the Red Devil finish the season as the Kookaburra Challenge Cup champions. Narrabri held the cup heading into the final round after winning it off Walcha back in round 11.

Meanwhile, the Narrabri Blue Boars went down 36-29 in second grade on Saturday in round 18 against the Red Devils.

Narrabri finished third on the ladder and will now meet fourth-placed side Barraba in the elimination final this Saturday.

Pirates prevailed 43-10 at home against Walcha to wrap up the minor premiership in style, while second-placed Moree lost 16-12 away from home against Barraba. Pirates will now host Moree in the qualifying final.

Narrabri Rugby Club’s women’s tens side finished the year with a crucial victory that saw them claim their maiden minor premiership. Their 33-24 win against Gunnedah saw them finish on 85 competition points, five clear of the second-placed Red Devils.