INVERELL forced their way into a second-chance decider against the Moree Boomerangs next Sunday thanks to one of the most one-sided finals Group 19 has seen yesterday.
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The Hawks put the Moree Boars on the spit-roast with a 64-10 slaughter at Varley Oval and are sharpening their knives for the Rangs next week.
Already 10-nil up after 23 minutes and with Boars fullback Tom Ryan in the bin, the home side kicked Moree while they were down with three tries in five minutes – all from long-range kicks.
Guy Mepham was the conductor.
The first try came from his 40-20 kick and he finished the four-pointer himself, the second found space at the back and Harold Duncan toed ahead and gathered for the first of his tries, and the third long kick saw the Boars spill the pill on their own line for Jayden Connors to pounce.
On top of that, Duncan added his second when a blind-side raid sent the lanky winger away down the right and he showed too much pace to score Inverell’s fourth try in seven minutes to make it 32-nil and skin the Boars of any real hope.
The half concluded with a punch-up that saw Boars Brenton Cochrane and Elekana Laupola marched for 10 minutes, along with Hawks centre Bradon Sunderland and the Hawks ran in another try when Duncan found space and put Jake Deaves over for his second.
That made it 38-nil at oranges and, even though Moree crossed straight after the break through Ben Williams, the scoring continued in the second half.
Duncan finished with three after an 80m intercept and Moree’s only other try came in the final minute when Gary Clark dived on a wide kick.
“Last week’s loss really hurt,” Inverell coach Peter Stevens said.
“My biggest concern was how we were going, mentally.
“And full credit to Moree. We’ve got some bruised and battered boys here.”
Boars coach Trevor Tighe said his side had a tough job on its hands even before the Hawks ran in early tries.
Finding a way back from there was too big an ask.
“You can’t let them get away early,” he said.
“When they’re running in easy tries you know it’s going to be a long day.
“They knew what they had to do to win and they did it.
The reserve grade decider will also see Inverell tackle the Boomies after the Rangs rolled Armidale in a 30-28 thriller.
Glen Innes progressed to face Inverell in the under 18s grand final after a 32-8 win over Armidale, but the Glen League Tag side won’t feature after a shock 26-12 loss to Moree, who will meet Ashford in the premiership decider.