Both triumphed in their respective finals, with Moree beating Kildare Catholic College Wagga 32-28 in golden point in the U13s Country Cup final and Holy Trinity overcoming Sacred Heart Cootamundra 26-16 in the U16 Year 10 Small Schools final.

Moree kicked things off with their thrilling four-point win.

David Annis-Brown was the hero for Moree after a brilliant break from half-back Dwayne Smith.

He beat six or seven defenders before passing off to Annis-Brown to finish for the win, much to the delight of the throng of what CRL Media and Communications Manager Adam Kidd reckoned was around 150 Moree supporters.

It was regarded as the game of the day.

Up against a bigger Kildare side, Moree had to play for all bar five minutes with just 12 players after one of their boys was sent off for tripping.

But they just kept turning up and pulling the Kildare boys down and, after trailing 16-10 at half-time, fought back to make it 28-all at the end of regular time.

An attempted short kick-off from the restart almost came back to bite them when Kildcare scooped it up and looked like going in.

But Moree scrambled back to hold them out.

They then forced a knock-on a couple of plays later and not long after a penalty, from which Smith went on his decisive run.

Corey Ricketts was named the player of the final and made a number of big runs into the defence, Kidd said.

Inverell then got their revenge, with the Cootamundra school having beaten them in the U13s Country Cup final two years ago.

They started really well, coach Peter Ehsman said, getting out to a 16-6 lead at half-time.

“They really controlled the ball well,” Ehsman said.

“We scored an intercept try which got the ball rolling.”

From that, they got a bit of confidence.

The second half they gave away a few penalties and made a few errors, which let Sacred Heart back into the game.

“But we were able to keep them out in the last 10 minutes,” Ehsman said.

The defence that had been the cornerstone of their success so far carried them through again.

The effort was all the more satisfying given the disruptions they had.

“It was a massive effort, especially without our captain and skipper (Will McAuliffe),” Ehsman said.

“The boys showed they wanted to play for him.”

Front-rower Alex Ticehurst was judged their best, picking up the player of the final award, but Ehsman was loath to single anyone out.

“It was a really good team effort across the park,” he said.