Walcha half-back Chris Watts fires the ball out to the backline as Narrabri’s Brendan Ward and Chase Magner look on during the second grade major semi. Photo: Geoff O’Neill 010912GOA03
WALCHA seconds kicked off a great day for the club at Inverell on Saturday, rolling minor premiers Narrabri.
The Rams pulled away in the final minutes to take victory 36-23 and move straight through to the grand final.
It’ll be their first appearance in the decider since they won the title three years ago.
Despite the final 13-point margin, there wasn’t a lot between the sides, with the game in the balance until the final minutes.
The lead changed hands several times in the closing stages but in the end it was the Rams that finished the stronger.
They scored the last three tries of the game after the Blue Boars had scored twice in the space of a minute to take a 23-17 lead with just over 10 minutes remaining.
But the Rams responded a couple of minutes later to regain the lead and they stayed in front from there.
It was a big turnaround, with the Blue Boars beating them convincingly when they last met.
“That was when we started to lift,” Rams co-coach Angus Warden said.
They had a good game against Scone in the last round, which served as a good hit-out for Saturday.
“All we had to do was try to get 50 per cent of the ball.
“Last time they really dominated possession,” Warden said.
“For us to be in the game we had to control the ball more.”
Which they did, starting with the set pieces. They were able to secure a lot more ball through the scrums and lineouts.
Warden thought one of the turning points was when Mitch Eveleigh was sin-binned in the second half.
The Blue Boars were on their line for a fair bit of that time, he said, but the Rams really rallied and defended well.
“They only scored one try,” Warden said.
The try did put them in front, but the Rams seemed to grow from that.
Warden said they all stepped up and played well.
Blue Boars coach Hunter Harley was disappointed with his side’s performance and said the Rams were deserved victors.
“They wanted it more, out-enthused us,” Harley said.
“They played well – we didn’t.”
It was the fundamental things that let them down.
They turned over a lot of ball both in general play and at the breakdown.
The prime example of that was after they scored to go six points clear.
“We made a mistake off the kick-off receive,” Harley said.
“We dropped it one or two phases after the kick-off.”
The Rams got the ball back and punished them.