IT was deja vu for Scone on Saturday, with the Brumbies, for the second home game in a row, just surviving after a second-half surge from their opposition.
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This time it was a revitalised Tamworth, and the Brumbies got home by five, 28-23.
That was two points more than two weeks ago against Inverell.
Saturday’s game bore a lot of similarities to that – too many for coaches Duncan Pinfold and Ben McRae’s liking.
“Our first half was great, we followed the game plan,” Pinfold said.
“The second half we had two yellow-cards and our discipline went out the window a bit.”
They were up 22-7 at half-time but failed to go on with it in the second half.
“It was very similar to Inverell,” Pinfold said.
“We kept letting them in, letting them in.”
“They had the bulk of the territory and bulk of the possession in the second half. We were lucky to hang on.”
It didn’t help that they were down to 14 for 20 minutes of the second half .
Both were forwards and as a result their scrum went “kaput”.
It was an “uphill battle”, something Pinfold didn’t really foresee after the first half.
New centre William Wardlaw made an immediate impact, scoring two tries in the first half straight up the middle, which was something that worked well for them.
“Territory and straight running set the first half up for us,” Pinfold said.
He said in the second half they’d have passages where they’d be switched on but then they’d concede a penalty.
Murray Wilkinson was again great at number eight and picked up the three points. Wardlaw earned the two and captain Martin Feehan the one.
Magpies co-coach Ross Duncan said the loss was “a bit shattering”, although it was more the manner of it.
Still it was a huge turnaround from the corresponding game last year.
The Brumbies thrashed them 80-nil.
“They bullied us,” Duncan recalled.
Early on, it was looking ugly for them again but they rallied in the second half.
“Credit to our boys, it was probably the best 40 minutes of football we’ve played as a team in the second half,” Duncan said. “We got ourselves back into the fight.”
But they just couldn’t finish it off.
“(The last 15) we turned over some crucial ball that we probably should have held onto,” Duncan said.
“They were really tight on the ball.”
He said Feehan and hooker Lourens Le-Grange turned over the ball a few times.
Second-rowers John Herdegen and debutant Nick Lyons topped the points, with Lachie McIntosh snaring the one after moving in from the wing to breakaway.