Kangaroos show what they are made of in a tight tussle against North Tamworth

Boggabri Kangaroos’ first grade coach Shane Rampling thought his men well and truly rose to the occasion when they beat North Tamworth Bears 22-14 away from home on Saturday.

The road trip was the 2024 grand finalist’s first in over a month following a four-game winning streak on home soil at Jubilee Oval, and it kicked off a run of away games to close out the season, with four of the side’s final five matches before the finals scheduled to be played on the road.

The Boggabri boys managed to outscore the Bears four tries to three and three conversions to one to secure an eight-point victory that saw them climb from third into second, while Norths dropped from second down to fifth.

Rampling told The Courier his players showed plenty of character, with a 10-minute period while down to 12 men either side of half-time being the catalyst for the important victory.

“I think we played pretty well, and defensively, we were really good, especially when we were down to 12 men twice,” Rampling said.

“We had Pita (Rogosau) sin-binned in the first half and we scored two tries while he was in the sin bin, and they didn’t score any points while he was off. I think that won us the game.

“Ilaisa (Kalokalodrau) got sent off with about seven minutes to go for a high shot, and we also lost Nick Millar with an elbow injury, so it was really good to keep Norths to 14 points after all that.

“They were coming home really hard at us in the last 10 minutes, but we turned them away, which was really good.

“For long periods of time we played to our game plan and completed sets. We matched them physically and then we got them out wide with our speed.

“Isaiah Adams had a really good game coming back in after a week off injured, and Ash White and Andrew Wallace played really well in the halves together, moving us around.

“Again, the forwards laid the platform for us.”

It was old boys’ day at Jack Woolsaton Oval on Saturday, but Boggabri were determined to ruin the party and took the wind out of the Norths sails early when the Group 4 competition’s top try-scorer Josefa Goneduadua went over to open the scoring in the seventh minute.

The right winger charged onto a perfect Matt Avendano cutout ball shortly after the visitors had played the ball on the Norths tryline, and he went over untouched before White added the extras to make the score 6-0.

The Bears hit back with their first try 10 minutes later when back-rower Ethan Collins crashed his was through several Boggabri defenders to score in his 50th game, and the hosts went ahead in the 34th minute when fullback Brayden Jerrard dived over in the left corner to make the score 8-6.

Boggabri then lost Rogosauto to the sin bin, but the Roos were able to regain the lead soon after when Wallace grubbered the ball into the path of Adams close to the Bears’ line and the fullback grabbed it and dived over to score.

White’s second conversion of the day made the score 12-8 in Boggabri’s favour at the break, and it became 16-8 three minutes into the second stanza when Tevita Peceli put Goneduadua over in the right corner.

Opposite winger Esava Nadalo then scored the away side’s fourth try in the 49th minute before White kicked them out to a 22-8 lead with just 30 minutes remaining, and North Tamworth could only manage one more try when James Cooper barged over from close range in the 70th minute.

The 22-14 win saw the Kangaroos climb from third into second, and Norths drop from second down to fifth.

The other round 10 winners were Moree Boars, Gunnedah Bulldogs and the Kootingal-Moonbi Roosters.

Meanwhile, North Tamworth were victorious in the other two games played at Jack Woolaston Oval on Saturday.

The seventh-placed Bears prevailed 32-24 in reserve grade over the fourth-placed Roos, which saw Norths join the Bulldogs and Roosters on eight points, just behind Boggabri on 10.

The ladies’ league tag contest saw the second-placed Norths beat last-placed Roos 26-0.