Blue Boars boys score comeback win

The Narrabri Rugby Club’s under-19s side will join its first grade and women’s sevens teams in Walcha this Saturday to play for a spot in the 2019 Central North Rugby Union under-19s grand final.

The Blue Boars took part in what was a three-team under-19s competition in 2019 and finished third.

On Saturday the Narrabri boys took on second-placed Barraba/Gwydir in the first week of the finals.

While it was elimination final day for the teams playing in the other three grades in Gunnedah, the under-19s teams were playing for a crack at the first-placed Pirates this Saturday in the qualifying final.

The loser of the match in Gunnedah would not be eliminated but would go on to meet the loser of this weekend’s match in the preliminary final.

The winner of the match which is now locked in as Pirates v Narrabri will progress straight through to the September 14 decider.

On Saturday in Gunnedah the Blue Boars started positively and established an early 7-0 lead when Nick Tomlinson converted an Angus Taylor try in the ninth minute.

However, the Barraba/Gwydir team scored a converted try of its own to make the score 7-all at half time.

Five minutes into the second stanza Narrabri was on the back foot, trailing 19-7 after Barraba/Gwydir crossed for two quick tries, one of which it converted.

But Jake Sevil then remarkably crossed for four unanswered tries to turn the game on its head.

He then converted one of those and Tomlinson converted two of them.

That put the Blue Boars ahead 33-19 after 65 minutes which was the game’s final score.

Blue Boars coach Tim Whan said that it was a great team performance and that the boys were coming together at the right time of the year and were playing some good footy.

In the first grade match played in Gunnedah on Saturday the defending champions Pirates scored a seven-point win against the hosts, winning the elimination final 27-20.

Two early Iliesa Navatu tries put Gunnedah ahead 10-0 before Bradley Swain made that 15-0 with a try in the 18th minute.

The Pirates hit back with two tries in the final 10 minutes of the half to reduce the deficit to five points at half-time as Gunnedah led 15-10.

It took 18 minutes for the first try of the second half to be scored and it was Gunnedah which struck with an Oscar Hunt five-pointer making the score 20-10.

Pirates’ Jack Shelton then crossed for a try on the hour mark to make the score 20-15 before teammate Sam Bowden made the score even with a 71st-minute try.

The Red Devils, which led for 65 minutes of the match, had their hearts broken on home soil late in the match when with just two minutes remaining Pirates’ Amos Ioasa went over for the winning try which was converted by Simon Trappel.

The Pirates led for all of two minutes in the contest but did so at exactly the right time, when the siren sounded, to progress to the September 7 preliminary final.

Also moving on to the preliminary final were the Gunnedah second grade team which beat Gwydir 19-17 and the Pirates women’s sevens team which downed Inverell 17-5.

The four teams which have already been locked in to play in the preliminary final games will learn which team they respectively face this Saturday when the qualifying final matches are played in Walcha.

In the main game the second-placed Narrabri Blue Boars take on the minor premiers Walcha Rams.

The outcome of that match will determine the venues of both the preliminary finals and the 2019 grand final day.

If Narrabri wins it will progress to host a home grand final, and Walcha will host all four preliminary finals including the first grade match against Pirates which have beaten the Rams in the past two grand finals.

However, if Walcha wins it will host grand final day and the Blue Boars will host those preliminary finals.

On Saturday the Blue Boars’ women’s sevens team will also be in action when it challenges minor premiers Gunnedah for a spot in the decider.