BARBARIANS did just enough to keep their New England premiership hopes alive on Sunday.
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That was co-coach Brett Monley’s assessment after they beat Robb College 17-12 to book a preliminary final match-up with St Alberts this Saturday.
“We got away with a win,” Monley said.
“We didn’t play our best football.
“The boys know they’ve got a lot of work to do.”
They headed into Sunday’s minor semi-final having won seven of their last eight, and their last two against the students, the most recent only the week before.
“Robb did a bit of homework from last week and came out pretty strong,” Monley said.
Their defence was what got them home in the end .
They scrambled well when they had to.
“We didn’t have much ball,” he said.
Especially in the first half.
Robb would have had 25 minutes where they were in their half attacking, Monley said, but they held them out.
It was “pretty sloppy” outside of that.
Sam Gates had a typically strong game and was their best.
Robb coach Sam Ditchfield felt “bad luck” summed it up for them.
“We beat them everywhere except on the scoreboard and the penalty count,” he said.
“We had the better of the field position all game, the better of the possession, our scrum dominated theirs and our lineout was better.”
“The penalty they kicked in the first half was the only time they were in our half.”
But they just couldn’t make it count where it mattered.
He felt they probably didn’t get their share of the penalties and was a bit miffed by a few decisions, but wasn’t blaming that.
They still had enough chances to win.
They missed a couple of shots on goal. A couple of times that final pass just didn’t go to hand.
There was also a forward pass with just a few minutes to go when they looked like they might be about to break out.
“In saying that, I was really pleased with how the boys played,” he said.
“It was a big improvement on the week before.”
He thought Will Archer was the best on the field.
“He had the best game of footy I’ve seen him play,” he said.
“Angus McIntosh played the best game he’s played in first grade.”
“But I couldn’t fault any one of them.”