NORTHERN Inland U17s almost pulled off a stunning Junior Gold Cup upset to kick off their 2015 campaign at Gunnedah on Sunday.
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It wasn’t quite to be, with Hunter scoring 14 unanswered points to sneak home 14-13.
Still, it was a promising start and a huge turnaround from last year’s 33-point thrashing.
Both results were big improvements, with the 15s earlier going down 31-5.
Prop Logan Griffiths scored the 15s’ lone try midway through the second half, crashing over after the Bushrangers had received a succession of penalties close to their line.
The 17s then gave their more fancied opponents an almighty scare.
“They were incredibly unlucky,” coach Morgan Martin said.
Morgan was bitterly disappointed not to get the win after leading for a lot of the game, but wasn’t with their performance.
“I’m absolutely delighted with how the boys played,” Martin said.
“They were outstanding from 1-23 and from the first minute to the last.”
He was optimistic heading in that they could do well but even he hadn’t quite expected what transpired.
“I thought we’d be competitive,” he said.
“But I was surprised by how well the boys went.”
Connor Size opened proceedings for them with a penalty.
Centre Bo Abra then stepped his way through after they almost drove over.
Hunter managed to hold them up after the goalpost had stalled their momentum.
From the scrum, half-back Jack Radford sent it out to Abra, who stepped off the right and then the left and busted through.
Size converted on half-time to put them 10 ahead at the break.
It was a deserved lead, with the Bushrangers looking the better side.
“I thought we totally controlled the game,” Martin said.
Hunter were a big side but they contained them well, he said.
“We stuck to the game plan for how we wanted to play,” he said.
That was an expansive game, and it paid dividends.
Size extended the lead to 13-nil with a second penalty barely a minute into the second half after the Bushrangers had won the ball back from the kick-off.
But from there the tide turned, with Benjamin Hall binned not long after after successive infringements from the Bushrangers in the red zone.
That was when Hunter made their move, scoring off the ensuing penalty and then right on the second drinks break to, with the conversion, take the lead.
They held possession for most of that time and just wore the undermanned Bushrangers down.
It was a measure of how well they defended though that both Hunter’s tries came while they were a man down.
The Bushrangers did have a period of possession with about five minutes to go in the red zone but couldn’t get any reward from it.