WEST Lions were handed their first defeat of the season at Scully Park on Sunday when Narrabri captain-coach Lachie Cameron nailed a long-range penalty to break a 30-all deadlock in the final moments.
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A frantic match saw Narrabri fly out of the gates to put on the first three tries, before the Lions fought their way back into the game, although every time they got within striking distance the Blues would score again until it was all tied up at 24-all and then 30-all in the final 20 minutes.
The Blues looked like they might run away with it early after the skipper found the line twice in the opening 10 minutes for a 10-nil lead, and when Dylan Gale crossed four minutes later the visitors took an early 16 point lead.
Wests struggled to keep the ball in hand, although finally managed to hold on to it long enough for Mark Sankey to score his first try in Wests colours, before Sam Taylor crossed just before the break for the Lions to go into the sheds down 14-12.
The Lions almost had the perfect start to the back half, although Cameron McDonald had the ball stripped from him over the line before the Blues worked down field for Robert Condron to score in the opposite corner next set.
Electric Wests fullback Dylan Lake then crossed under the posts on the end of a few good sets of hands to get it back to two points, but again Narrabri hit back with Blues halfback Kialu Brown putting some excellent footwork on to beat Lake and race 50 metres to score.
Again Wests came back through a dummy half dart from Luke Cox to even the scores at 24-all with seventeen minutes to go, and again the Blues hit back, this time Jacob Nichols taking advantage of Phil Beaton’s sin binning to go 30-24.
DJ Smith followed the pattern, the big centre stepping through the Narrabri defence to touch down and bring the scores back to even, which is where it looked like finishing before the visitors were awarded a penalty 40 metres out to the left side of the posts.
Norman Lawler and Brown had been sharing the kicking duties, but cometh the hour, cometh the man, and the captain-coach took the ball and lined it up.
Cameron skied the kick, but as the Scully Park crowd collectively held their breath it just floated over the black dot to hand the lead back to the Blues with three minutes remaining.
The Lions went for a short re-start that didn’t make the 10 and the Blues closed the game out, the first time the skipper can remember coming to Scully Park and leaving with the points.
“That win is everything to us,” Cameron said.
“We let ourselves down early in the season but the last two weeks have been a turning point.”
“The whole squad dug deep and played for each other.”
“We have to go on with it now or that win won’t mean much.”