The Blue Boars’ injury woes also continued with at least three players forced off with injury.

Already missing are inside centre Mitch Kelly, and they lost outside centre James Thomas midway through the game with what, coach Nick Lennon said, was looking like a broken collarbone. 

Second rower Daniel Kahl and his replacement Mitch Cuell also came off with injuries.

It's a complication Lennon didn’t need as the Blue Boars look to keep their hopes of a third straight premiership alive.

They tackle arch rivals Moree this Saturday for the right to play Pirates for the silverware.

The Blue Boars will be itching for a rematch after being off their game on Saturday. The usual accuracy and fluency weren't there.

“We’ve got a lot to work on,” Lennon said.

Ball security is a big one, with the Blue Boars coughing up too much ball.

“If we could hold onto the ball and not make mistakes we could get a roll-on,” Lennon said.

They showed that with Sam Kahl’s try midway through the second half.

They built up the pressure through good phase play, switching the play from one side of the field to the other.

Then sensing Pirates were a bit short on the left side, half-back Matt Schwager worked a play to find Kahl, who shook off the Pirates defence.

It was their best passage of the game. 

They did have some success in the second half “going around the back”and forcing Pirates onto the back foot, but they “just couldn’t finish”.

Despite being 19-nil down, Lennon was optimistic at half-time - afterall they’d been in similar positions before.

Both their games against Pirates they'd hauled in deficits.

Their first encounter they trailed by 14 with 10 to go and came back to win. Two weeks later they fought back from 25-13 down with a similar time remaining to draw 25-all.

“I thought with the speed of the game we could come home strong,” Lennon said.

But it wasn’t to be.

On Saturday they'll play a Bulls side that fought back from a 19-nil down to beat Walcha 41-24.