A SECOND-half double to prop Sanimo Navatu helped Tamworth Magpies peck their way out of jail at Tamworth Rugby Park on Saturday and keep their hopes of making the top five alive.
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Just like Inverell did to them in the first round, the Magpies pilfered the points from Barraba with a late try.
Navatu was the man, barging his way over with a couple of minutes remaining to lock up the scores at 15-all.
Matt Blanch then added the extras to kick Tamworth home 17-15.
It was heavy going in the muddy and greasy, and at times wet, conditions, and Magpies co-coach Mark Daley conceded they got out of jail, adding a draw probably would have been a fair result.
Not that he was complaining about what was a needed win.
“It was really good character from the guys,” he said.
Admittedly it probably wasn’t until the last 20 minutes that they really started playing.
“I don’t think we were allowed to,” Daley said,
“Their 10 and 15 kicked well and put the pressure on us.”
They were guilty too of disrespecting the ball a bit at times.
The Rams had the first chance for points about 15 minutes in but Michael Rutherford’s attempt from long range just didn’t quite have the legs.
A few minutes later, Magpies prop Isaac Scholes showed some deft hands, slipping a short pass to second-rower Tomby Borezi, who burst through and, at the last line of the Rams defence, offloaded to second-row partner Nick Lyons.
The Rams hit back with a spectacular try to outside centre Luke Smith.
It was something out of the dry-weather playbook, with fullback Jeremy York chipping and regathering.
He then kick-passed across the left to Smith in open space.
Rutherford converted to put the Rams ahead 7-5, which he extended to 10-5 with about four minutes to go in the first half.
Rams five-eighth Ben Withers pushed them further ahead just over 10 minutes into the second half but their buffer was cut back to five when, after a succession of penalties and quick taps in their 22, Navatu ducked over.
The home side was by then starting to wrest back a bit of the ascendency.
The momentum turned further towards them when replacement Rams backrower Blake Etheridge was sin-binned, leaving them with 14 for 10 of the last 11-and-a-half minutes.
The Magpies enjoyed the better of the possession and territory during that period and, while the Rams defended valiantly, they couldn’t stop a barnstorming Navatu from crashing over for his second after a win against the feed had the Rams scrambling.
Rams coach Nick Bomford felt Etheridge’s sin-binning was a turning point.
“I think Tamworth once we were a man down, they muscled up and used it to their advantage,” he said.
It was difficult enough defending in the conditions let alone with 14 men.
Still there were “no excuses”.
“I think we were on top for about 60 minutes and the last 20 Tamworth ran us down,” he said.
