TAMWORTH cashed in on some early luck to account for Scone 42-15 in their Tier 2 clash at Tamworth Rugby Park on Saturday and restart their quest for a finals spot in perfect fashion.
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The game wasn’t even five minutes old when Magpies outside centre Dylan Cross burst through into open space after a clearing kick had bounced favourably for winger Luke Klasen to tap back.
Virtually from the kick-off, centre partner Joe Evans profited from another fortuitous kick to, with Pat Strong’s accurate boot, put the home side ahead 14-nil after five minutes.
It was always going to be tough for the Brumbies from there, and should have been tougher, with the Magpies dominating the first 15 minutes but just not able to capitalise.
The bounce of the ball finally went the Brumbies’ way midway through the half, Toby Twigg crawling his way to the line after a 50m run chasing through on a kick.
The Magpies hit back through debutant Klasen after the Brumbies failed to clean up a kick through, and led 21-5 at the break.
Tom Anderson scored to lock in the bonus point about 10 minutes into the second half and from there it was pretty much academic for the Magpies.
It was a big day for them being their annual Headspace Day, and an important win.
Every game now is a virtual grand final, with five teams fighting for the one remaining finals spot.
Co-coach Mark Daley was overall pleased with the performance, although it was a bit scrappy at times, especially in the first half.
“We played okay for 20 minutes then we got caught up in a bit of scrappy play,” Daley said.
“We probably should have been up by 20 or 30.”
They almost scored off a 20m rolling maul and then almost off a pushover try but Jack Barker was ruled to have knocked on.
Other times they made the break but couldn’t finish off, either because the support wasn’t there or they turned the ball over.
Interspersed with that they showed some slick touches.
“We were a lot straighter today,” Daley said.
“I think we’ve been a bit lateral. I was really happy to see us straighten up.”
Brumbies coach Luke Bailey was proud of the way his side fought back but disappointed with what they produced.
“We have better in us than what we showed today,” he said.
The frustrating thing for him was they showed in patches what they are capable of, with Twigg and skipper Doug McKillop, particularly, outstanding.
“We just leaked too many points on the outside,” Bailey said.
“We were falling off tackles.”
Their discipline also hurt them.
Quirindi edged out Barraba 13-12 in the other Tier 2 game.
