There was little in it for most of the game, with scores locked at 10-all at half-time and the Lions clinging to an eight-point lead for the last 15 minutes.

“That was a real hard grind of a win,” Quirindi coach Nick Rees said.

“Magpies didn’t stop coming at us all day and we kept coming at them.”

The Magpies showed good endeavour early but it was the visitors who struck first, with winger Jake Smith swooping on a loose ball from an errant pass as Tamworth pressed their line and running away the length of the field to score.

The home side hit back though second-rower Tomby Borezi after a build-up of about five minutes and successive penalties close to their line.

The Lions replied a few minutes later through the boot of Ben Webber to extend their lead and were almost in again after Smith again swooped on a loose ball.

This time he kicked through but the Magpies were ruled to have beaten him to ground the ball.

Then in the shades of half time, Joe Evans initiated and James Hall finished a raid that started in the Magpies’ own half and followed about 10 minutes’ absorbing pressure from the Lions.

Pat Strong couldn’t add the extras though, leaving the scores tied at the break.

They didn’t stay that way for long, with Magpies outside centre Joe Evans brushing through the Lions’ defence inside the first couple of minutes to put them ahead 15-10.

The home side had a couple of opportunities not long after that, but from there the Lions enjoyed the better of the territory and possession, and kicked a couple of penalties to reclaim the lead 16-15 midway through the second half.

Then with about 15 to go, Strong was yellow-carded. 

From the ensuing lineout, after opting to go to touch, the Lions drove over, Webber converting from the sideline to push them beyond a converted try.

Sensing the game was slipping from them, the Magpies tried valiantly to close the gap but each time the Lions forced a mistake or turnover, or a penalty.

The final nail came on full-time with Webber kicking his fourth penalty, much to the rapture of the Lions’ supporters.

“We played to our structure and to our strengths,” Rees said.

It still wasn’t perfect but they won the little contests and, for the most part, dictated the game, particularly in the second half.

The Magpies, for their part, were “pretty ordinary”, co-coach Mark Daley said.

“We were outsmarted and outmuscled,” he said.

“That was not the side that played at Moree.”

It was a story of too many penalties and too many turnovers.

Still they were right in it, until Strong’s sin-binning.

“I thought it was meandering on until Pat got 10,” Daley said. “I thought it would be hard from there.”