Missed opportunities and a few wrong decisions at the wrong time.
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That was Tamworth coach Damian Henry's summation after Barbarians snatched the win from the Magpies' grasp with a final minute converted try.
In a dramatic conclusion to their round 3 clash in Armidale on Saturday, May 4, Baa Baas scored right on the full-time siren to give Edward Pitt the chance to snatch a share of the points. He promptly nailed the conversion from the sideline to make the final score 22-all.
"We just didn't take our opportunities at the right time and made a couple of wrong decisions at the wrong time," Henry said.
Such as the moments that led to Barbarians getting that late opportunity.
As he recalled, they had a scrum in their half, but instead of going for the line they tried to roll through the phases and ended up turning it over, gifting the home side a scrum of their own in a good position.
After "three or four phases" they "spun it wide" and found inside centre Francis Tamanitadruku.
Seconds away from notching their first win of the season, naturally it was for Henry, and the players alike, disappointing and frustrating.
His only hope is that they'll learn from it and be better equipped should they find themselves in that situation again.
"We wanted to play field position, obviously in the wet (it didn't rain a lot during the game but had beforehand), and instead of going to the corners we just didn't make the right choices at the right time," he said.
"Especially in the last 10 minutes when we obviously wanted to get it up the other end... we hit it up and trucked it up a bit too much without getting our clearing kicks right."
As a result they put themselves under undue pressure.
They did still play "some good footy" and stuck to their structures pretty well, although on the whole Henry thought they probably didn't "raise the bar", in terms of performance, by the same measure they had from Armidale in the first game to Walcha last week.
"But we're positive. We're going forward," Henry said.
"He was everywhere," Henry said.
"He got a few turnovers for us and kept turning up in defence."
He was also thrown in the deep end as a lineout jumper but "did fairly well".
Walker Harrison, at No.8, picked up the two points and Liam Allan the one to make it three straight games he has been among the points.
"His defence was really good and his goal kicking was good," Henry said.
Their focus now turns to hosting St Albert's this Saturday.
It will be their first game back at home since the opening round and also be the club's annual Headspace Day.
