Pirates’ ability to rally under adversity again came to the fore at Dangar Park on Saturday as they overcame a man disadvantage, gritty Narrabri and a half-time deficit to beat the Blue Boars 40-27.
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The premiers played virtually 65 minutes of the game with 14 after winger Sam Collett was sent off for a lifting tackle and trailed 15-14 at the break. But as they have so often done they produced a few moments of brilliance in the second half to claim their 28th straight win.
“Between the 20th and 30th minute we just blew them away,” Kelly said.
The Blue Boars were down to 14 for some of that with Callum Styles and Matt McDonnell both receiving yellow cards in the second half.
Kelly thought his sides first 30 minutes was “pretty ordinary” but overall put it up there as “one of the better performances we’ve had”.
“Everyone had to stand up and had to work hard,” he said.
He said their enthusiasm was the biggest thing in that first half an hour. They were also doing “stupid things” like throwing the ball away when they didn’t need to.
“It felt like we were up for it but it didn’t flow onto the field. The 10 minutes before half time was good and half-time was good for us to regroup,” Kelly said.
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The second half was a lot better, the scrum again proving a real weapon for them.
Several of their tries came from the scrum, and in Blue Boars coach Dylan Duncan’s opinion it was the difference.
While they didn’t lose a tighthead they were under a lot of pressure and then when Pirates had the ball they “really put the screws on”.
Making his return from injury, ‘Mr. Fix-It’ aka Sam Collins played the 80 minutes and was “fantastic” for Pirates at five-eighth Kelly said. Half-back Jackson Sharpe was also very good and got Kelly’s three points.
“He covered a lot and cleared up a lot of things and took on the challenge of playing one of the best in Matt Schwager,” he said.
He also noted that Conrad Starr also broke his recent try drought with a double while Andrew Collins had his best game of the season up front. Packing on the other side of the scrum Ben Goodman was also very strong in his 150th first grade game for Pirates.
Duncan was happy with how the Blue Boars played and said they will take a lot out of the game.
“We’d be the closest game they’ve had,” he said, adding that they are “a team on the up”.
After a strong first half, they were looking good in the second half until they lost Styles and McDonnell. That was when Pirates got a bit of ascendancy on them, Duncan said.
And when they get a bit of a roll-on they are very hard to stop.
He felt Pirates probably had a bit of an edge in the forwards.
“We were better than them wide,” Duncan said.
“Their forwards were just that little bit smarter than us.”
Mitch Wheaton was their best at number eight.
“He ran the ball strongly and didn’t get tackled behind the advantage line all day,” he said.
Prop Will Turner and outside centre Jacob Booby earned the two and one point.
