HISTORY repeated for Pirates on Saturday as Narrabri clawed back a 14 point deficit in the last 15 minutes to wrest the points, and Scotty Campbell Memorial Trophy, from their grasp in dramatic fashion at Ken Chillingworth Oval on Saturday.
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Blue Boars fullback Michael Cain nailed a penalty after the bell to kick the Blue Boars to a 29-28 win and their third in similar fashion against Pirates at home in as many seasons.
Two seasons ago they scored two unanswered tries in the last 13 minutes to get home by two.
Then last season they won by five after scoring with five minutes to go to hit the lead for the first time.
Saturday followed a pretty similar script with the final whistle the only time they were in front.
The home side looked like breaking the premiers unbeaten run when prop Bart Leach burrowed his way over and Andrew Moodie added the extras to put them ahead 28-14 with just over 15 to go.
Coach Mat Kelly admittedly thought they were “home and hosed”.
But four minutes later they found themselves down to 14 for the second time in the game with Doug Biffin yellow-carded.
They’d only been restored to a full complement a few minutes after Sam Collins had been sin-binned, and the Blue Boars made the most of their numbers advantage with number eight Jack Sharp worming his way over.
Cain couldn’t add the extras leaving the Blue Boars nine in arrears with eight minutes to go.
Then with just on two to go, and with Pirates still a man down, centre Mitch Kelly hit the line at speed and burst through to score under the posts, and with the conversion, make it a two point ball-game.
Seemingly with the momentum the Blue Boars chanced their arm out of their half from the kick-off and, after a strong run from Cain to about 30m out, they were awarded the chance to snatch it with Collins ruled to have infringed at the breakdown.
Cain had to contend with a parochial “Pirates” chant but put the ball through, sparking jubilant celebrations from the Blue Boars.
It had looked a long, and unlikely, way back for them when Pirates led by 14 with under 10 minutes to go.
Even coach Nick Lennon was resigned to hoping they could finish within seven.
Then they got that fourth try.
“When we got that try I thought we were a chance of getting it,” he said.
That said, he thought for a lot of the game no-one really had control of it.
“The pendulum kept swinging,” he said.
They admittedly didn’t play to their potential for the full 80.
“It definitely wasn’t an 80-minute performance,” Lennon said.
“I think we can do better, especially defensively, but I was happy.
“We still won without playing our best.”
Pirates led 21-14 at half-time on the back of a hat-trick to Conrad Starr and their disappointment, and frustration, was etched over their faces, that late penalty summing up where it went wrong for them.
Kelly had spoken before the game about discipline being an issue for them in these games in the past, and it was again their downfall.
They were fuming about the penalty count, which was heavily weighted against them and had a big bearing in their mind.
Kelly accepted that they weren’t perfect and gave penalties away, but he thought they were a bit hard done by on some of the calls.
There were “five or six” that he thought were dubious.
He also thought Sharp’s try was questionable. They claim he was short by “about two feet”.
In between the penalties, they played some good rugby.
“With ball in hand we looked good,” Kelly said.
Their defence too was again strong and kept them in the game.