Moree rues the half that got away

That was where it was lost for the Bulls – the 17- point deficit proving too much to make up in the end.

“The clock beat us,” coach Damien Kelly said.

“But that was our fault, not playing well in the first half.”

They did lead briefly, with number eight Matt Wannan picking up from the back of the scrum and twisting his way over to put them 10-5 ahead after 10 minutes.

It was to be their only joy in the first half as Pirates dominated from there.

“We made way too many errors in the first half and didn’t play the field position we talked about,” Kelly said.

That wasn’t to take anything away from Pirates. They played well.

“They attacked well,” Kelly said.

They particularly caused them a few problems ou wide.

“Out wide they cut us up a little bit,” he said.

“They got the ball out quickly and we probably didn’t drift well in defence.

“We put a stop to it in the second half.”

They also controlled the ball a lot better and made more metres through their forwards.

“When we got the ball where we wanted to and did what we wanted to do we played well,” he said.

They just took a while to do that.

Another thing that helped turn things around for them was their intensity.

“We got a little bit more urgent,” Kelly said.

“We realised it was now or never.”

Their intent was clear from early in the second half, with John Adams’ try coming on the back of five or six jaunts at Pirates’ line.

It wasn’t just about the forwards though, with outside centre Jordan Cosh making some strong runs, one of which he scored from, and wingers Rob Solesse and Sam Bacigalupo also producing some incisive runs.

Solesse was pushed into touch just metres from the line after a blistering run.

Bacigalupo then instigated the attack that led to Kelly’s try.

But each time the Bulls looked to be getting on top they just let the pressure off by making simple mistakes like kicking out on the full outside the 22 and from kick-offs.

As disappointed as he was though, Kelly was also immensely proud.

They showed huge “ticker” to come back from 17 points down and get within three and have a shot at pushing it into extra-time.

He thought the kick was in Heath Riggs’s range.

“I thought Riggsy could kick it,” he said.

He didn’t quite nail it, leaving them third, which was probably deserved.

“We probably haven’t played the football we wanted to in patches,” Kelly said.

“I don’t think we deserved to win the competition.”

Skipper Ben Colley was again huge for them. Prop Andrew McNamara and inside centre Angus Boileau also had strong games.