TAMWORTH overturned a half-time deficit to fleece a spot in the top five from Walcha as the makeup of the two tiers was settled on Saturday.
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The Magpies and Gunnedah claimed the final two spots in the top tier, the Magpies fighting back from 11-5 down at half-time to take the points 17-11 and, with other results, push the Rams out of the five.
They had entered the round in fourth but such was the closeness of the competition there was no margin for error and, with the loss, were supplanted by the Magpies and Red Devils.
The Red Devils had to fight hard to hold off Inverell and earn their spot.
Midway through the second half it was 17-all.
But the home side kicked away in the final 20 to run out 34-17 winners.
Barraba did what they needed to, accounting for Quirindi 36-10 on the back of a hat-trick to winger Nilsson West, but it wasn’t enough in the end.
Hat-tricks were also the order of the day for Pirates, with winger Micah Scarth and centre Andrew Mepham bagging three as they overpowered Scone 65-5.
At Walcha, the Magpies forwards set the platform.
“Our forwards were tremendous,” Magpies co-coach Mark Daley said.
“We won a lot of tight heads and Mitch Wheaton in the lineout was fantastic.”
He pilfered a few crucial lineout steals in the second half to help keep the Magpies in front.
Jack Barker had got them to 11-10 early in the second half.
It stayed at that for a long time, Daley said, but eventually their continual pressure paid dividends, with Harry Veitch crossing for his second to put them in front with about 20 to go.
From there it was a matter of holding on.
“The last five to seven minutes they had a hell of a lot of pressure inside our 10,” he said.
That was Wheaton’s lineout steals and the scrum turnovers really became critical.
“Obviously that took a lot of pressure off us,” Daley said.
Their defence was also a factor in getting them home.
“We probably shut down their backs pretty well and their back three,” he said.
That was where the danger was, and they were able to stifle the flow and speed of ball to them.
Daley said it was fantastic to make the five.
“It’s great for the club and great for the boys,” he said.
Rams co-coach Barry Hoy conceded the Magpies were “too solid” for them.
“We didn’t play that well,” he said.
“We couldn’t get our rhythm and then started dropping balls and turning it over.”
He said the Magpies played smarter than them, the set piece turnovers really hurting them.
Then when they did win one they’d knock it on.
“We didn’t get enough ball in the second half to put the pressure on,” he said.
It also didn’t help them that when they had the ball they were going backwards a lot of the time, which took their backs out of the game.
Will Fletcher, Ed Churchill, Sam Martin and Nat Brazel were their best.