Gunnedah product Angus Roberts suffered the misfortune of being left out of the NSW Country Eagles team which narrowly lost last Saturday night’s National Rugby Championship (NRC) decider at Scully Park.
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Having come off the interchange bench in some matches and started at fullback in the absence of an injured Andrew Kellaway in other matches, Roberts expected to come on as a replacement in the second half of the decider.
But it wasn’t to be, as NSW Country chose to pick a centre on the interchange bench instead of Roberts as one of the first-choice centres was under an injury cloud.
It was disappointing for Roberts, who had hoped to play in the decider at Scully Park as he considered it was “definitely a home game”.
NSW Country was mathematically a chance of winning the match until the final whistle blew with the Perth Spirit leading 20-16.
There was no score in the opening 30 minutes, although the Spirit clearly established dominance in the scrums.
The Spirit moved to a handy lead before the Eagles trimmed the margin to four points on the stroke of half-time. NSW Country fell further behind before trailing 20-16 and having a chance of stealing the game in the final six minutes.
The Spirit ultimately secured the prize after Brisbane City won the first two NRC titles and fell well short in its pursuit of a three-peat.
One of Perth’s forwards who played a decisive role was Jono Lance, who was last year’s player of the NRC competition as he played for the Eagles while Roberts was with the now-defunct Sydney Stars.
