Central North Round 18: Narrabri complete regular season with 29-15 win over Moree

The Blue Boars were savouring that feeling again on Saturday after defeating their arch-rivals 29-15 to make it seven straight to finish the regular season.

“We’re coming good at right end of year. The last game we lost was Walcha at home,” Duncan said.

Incidentally the Rams will be the Blue Boars’ opponents in Saturday’s minor semi-final.

The Rams are in Duncan’s view the team to beat, but from what he has seen from the Blue Boars he has no doubt they’ve got the ability to roll them.

“The guys have got confidence in each other,” he said.

“That’s really the only difference from last year is a bit of confidence.”

They showed that in the second half on Saturday as they turned a half-time deficit into a 14 point win.

”The first half we didn’t play very well, we let them out of their end a lot and gave away a lot of penalties,” Duncan said.

“The second half we put it together. We controlled the ball better and scored some good tries.”

It has been something of a theme this season.

“Our second half performances have been awesome all year,” he said, adding that they know they can chase down any score.

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He said the pack stood up well to the Bulls’ with Mitch Wheaton and Matt McDonnell particularly proving a handful on the edges while the backs punched “a fair few” holes in the Bulls defence through the middle.

Jake Packer was prominent at inside centre and picked up the three points. Sam Kahl earned the two and Jydon Hill the one.

The Bulls came out strong in front of a large Sponsors Day crowd and led the Blue Boars by about seven points at half-time.

However, they failed to put any points on the board in the second half.

“The first half was really good, we were faultless,” Bulls first grade co-coach Mick Grant said.

“But like the last few games, we just couldn’t play the last 40 minutes. It felt like there was a lack of urgency.”

Although missing a number of players due to injury and other commitments, Grant said the side that was picked should have performed “a lot better than they did”.

“It wasn’t anything to do with mistakes or discipline; the penalty count went our way, 14-9,” he said.

“It seemed like we had no possession of the ball, even though the penalties went our way.

“We were relying on our key players to score off every phase. We just dropped off the ball a bit. There was no enthusiasm.

“It was mainly that we couldn’t finish that last 40 minutes.”

Grant said Narrabri were strong on Saturday, as is always expected when the two sides meet.

“We always seem to perform well at Narrabri and they always seem to perform well at Moree,” he said.

“That’s how it’s been for years.

“They’ve always been strong finishers. We knew that at half time that the lead wasn’t enough. But we had a bad kick-off at the start of second half and straight away lost the ball and we just couldn’t recover.”

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Narrabri’s inside backs played particularly well, “suffocating” the Bulls.

“Their cover defence was outstanding, it created havoc for us,” Grant said. 

“We had no respect for the ball. The ball turned over a number of times. Once we get the ball we need to string phases together or better sides will punish us for it.”

Ben Williams and Jaime Sampson once again had top games, while Will Carrigan played well in the foward pack.

Despite the loss – which Grant said was a “disappointing start to our semis campaign” – the Bulls managed to finish the season in second spot, eight points behind Tamworth Pirates and just two points in front of third-placed Walcha and fourth-placed Narrabri.

The Bulls will now have a week off before meeting Pirates in the major semi-final.

“That’s our big focus for the next two weeks,” Grant said.

“We’ll be working on just protecting our ball and getting more clean ball for our backs and stringing phases together.

“We’ll also do a lot of work on defence and one-on-one tackles and making them count.”

Grant said they should have a full-strength squad back on deck for the finals.