It couldn’t have been a better homecoming for Alex Newsome when the Country Eagles took the field in Armidale on Saturday against the Canberra Vikings.
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Down 24-18 and the Eagles attacking after the siren sounded, the Country side swung the ball wide and found Newsome.
In front of a vocal New England crowd, the Glen Innes local crashed his way over for the match-winner.
Tayler Adams made no mistake with the conversion and the Eagles won 25-24, their first for the season.
“It was pretty awesome,” Newsome said of his try.
“It wasn’t the best performance by us, we made a few mistakes throughout the game but it’s great to get the win.
“You always dream of those sort of moments but I am just happy to get the win.”
The Eagles opened the scoring through an Adams-penalty but it was the visitors who posted the first five pointer with Folau Fainga’a diving over in the corner.
Sam Ward put the Eagles in front 10-7 when he barged over but their lead was short-lived as Fainga’a bagged his second just four minutes later.
Ward almost crashed over for his second five minutes later but was ruled to have knocked on in reaching out to score as the Vikings carried a four-point lead into half-time.
The Eagles dominated territory and possession in the opening 20 minutes of the second half but time and time again errors and ill-discipline hurt them and they were unable to convert that pressure into points.
When Vikings winger Andrew Robinson then picked off an intercept and raced away 80m to score, the Canberra side were up 21-10 with just over 15 minutes to play.
Newsome said the Eagles though remained confident.
“Those intercepts hurt but we just knew we had to keep fighting and knew we had to clean up our discipline and we got there in the end,” he said.
Alex Gibbon gave the Eagles some hope with a great solo effort to score in the corner and make it a six point game with around 10 minutes remaining.
Each side posted a penalty to bring the scoreline to 24-18 before Newsome’s try sealed the win for the Eagles.
It’s not the last time the Country side will play in the region with their round eight clash against Perth Spirit to be played at Tamworth’s Scully Park on October 14.
“Get around us. We are playing in Tamworth in a couple of weeks so come and have a look,” Newsome said.
Eagles captain and Tamworth product Paddy Ryan paid credit to the Armidale crowd after the win.
“The Armidale crowd got us home,” Ryan said.