TAMWORTH produced its best performance of the season, while Walcha’s backs were on fire and Narrabri outlasted Gunnedah as Central North’s new two-tier system kicked off on Saturday.
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The Blue Boars beat a spirited Gunnedah 28-20 in their tier one clash at Dangar Park but were given a fright.
The home side looked to have the game in hand up 18-6 at half-time but the Red Devils got it to within three with about 10 minutes to go.
Walcha had an easier time of it, thrashing Barraba 60-12 in their tier two match-up.
The visiting Rams had too much strikepower out wide, with Richard Young and Ed Churchill particularly proving too hot for Barraba to handle.
They scored seven of Walcha’s 10 tries between them, Young at fullback crossing for four and inside centre Churchill three.
At Scone, after almost chasing the Brumbies down to get the points in their earlier visit, the Magpies converted a 17-10 half-time lead into a 38-29 success.
“It was a really good result,” co-coach Ross Duncan said.
“We asked the boys to step it up a notch and really played the most consistent 80 minutes of football we’ve played all year.”
Importantly, they stuck to the game plan, which was to kick it to the corners and put the pressure on the Brumbies.
“We still had a couple of the lapses we’ve been guilty of,” Duncan said.
But they kept the Brumbies pretty quite until the last 20 minutes.
They really stamped their authority on the game with a couple of “lucky” tries early in the second half.
Luke Neal scored the first from an intercept.
Then from a bomb about 10m their side of half way they got the ball back around the 22 and scored off that.
“They were critical in giving us a bit of breathing room and gave the boys a bit of confidence,” Duncan said.
The forwards really set the platform.
“The forwards played really tight and kept getting over the advantage line,” he said.
They again scored a couple of tries off driving mauls. The lineout also worked well.
“We had good pressure in the lineout,” Duncan said.
“Our own lineout ball was certain and we put pressure on theirs.”
The backs equally deserved the plaudits.
“The backs had by far their best attacking game of the year,” he said.
Sam Burges had a huge game at breakaway and got the three points. Neal picked up the two and Nick Humphries and Lachlan McIntosh the one, but Duncan said they could have picked a dozen players to give them to.
