ARMIDALE held on under late scrutiny from Barbarians on Saturday to sew up the minor premiership.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Chasing their fourth straight win, Baa Baas stormed home, scoring two late unanswered tries.
But it wasn’t enough, with the Blues holding on to take the points 19-15.
That makes them virtually impossible to run down with only three games remaining.
It was a tough slog at times and Blues coach Anthony McMillan thought a pretty scrappy affair, with the game never really flowing.
“It was very stop-start,” McMillan said.
“In saying that, our scrum was dominant in the first half.
“We got several tightheads off them.”
They did lose that avenue of attack in the second half, with the Baa Baas’ scrum stiffening up, but McMillan felt like they were always in control of the game.
Although they were given a bit of a scare, with the Baa Baas scoring twice in the last 10 minutes.
“One was a pretty good individual effort from Dom Bower. He ran through probably 90 per cent of the team,” McMillan said.
The Blues had to play the better part of the last half an hour a man down as they struggled with their discipline.
“We had three blokes carded for repeat infringements,” McMillan said.
“It didn’t help matters much.”
Defence has been a real feature of their season and he thought their defence was pretty good up until the last 10 minutes.
“When we did attack we looked pretty good but we probably only played 15-20 minutes of reasonable football,” he said.
“The rest of the time we were defending and getting in trouble.”
They were silly infringements too like coming in from the side, things the players know they’re not allowed to do.
Prop Geordie Marchant was their best.
“He led well from the front,” McMillan said.
Breakaway Angus Webb and half-back Brodie Rigby rounded out the points.
Barbarians co-coach Brett Monley said it was an encouraging result.
“Last time we played them they beat us 48-8,” Monley said.
“I thought we played pretty well. It was nearly 19-nil at one stage and we came back.”
“They had a lot of ball in the first half and I thought they capitalised.”
The key for them turning things around was patience, and working hard.
“We just told the guys ‘you’ve got to be patient’,” Monley said.
“We were getting into their half but we were getting isolated.
“We needed to work a bit harder than that.”
Still, it was another step forward for them.
The lineout was good, and the forwards are really starting to gel.
“It’s been a bit of a blessing on one side,” Monley said.
“It makes the boys a bit hungrier.”
Bower had a strong game for them along with Keith Ellis and Sam Gates.
Cody Graham also had a really good game at flanker.
In the other game, St Albert’s thrashed Glen Innes 54-12.