The Lions’ destiny is in their own hands after they edged out Tamworth 16-10 at Quirindi Rugby Park on Saturday.

They had to dig deep for the win, which saw them leapfrog the Magpies, with a guaranteed five points in the bag next week for the bye.

“The last three minutes Tamworth had the ball in our 22,” Quirindi co-coach Nick Rees said.

“There were four penalties in that. It was three minutes of defence.”

“(But) The belief in the team. We knew we could hold them. That’s what won us the game.”

That belief is one of the things that has turned things around.

Similar to their clash with the Magpies only a few weeks ago, there wasn’t really anything in it with the two on level pegging at half-time.

In the first, it was 10-all at the break. On Saturday it was 12-all.

It was a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde performance by the Lions.

“We as a team did not play any good football in the first half,” Rees said.

“We had no decent phase play. Couldn’t put anything together. The second half we were a totally different team.”

To their credit, Tamworth also played well in the second half, he said.

The Lions’ late resilience was testament to what was an overall very strong defensive effort.

“Our defence was probably the best I’ve seen this year,” Rees said.

“The first half was terrible. We missed everything. The second half we came off the line and shut their players down.”

It was hard to single out standouts, but Tom Elsley and Jake Smith were among the Lions’ best, Rees said.