Central North Rugby: Pirates stage stunning fightback to down Gunnedah 27-20

Then, as is the case now, they were attempting to win a fourth straight Central North premiership, finished the regular season in fourth and knocked over the Red Devils at home in the first week of the finals.

They then went on to defeat Inverell before breaking Walcha hearts in the grand final.

On Saturday they led for just over two minutes of what was an absorbing minor semi-final, but were in front when it mattered, Amos Ioasa darting out from the ruck to complete the comeback after Sam Bowden had squared the game up at 20-all with nine minutes to play.

It wasn't pretty and they have a lot of work to do, but skipper Conrad Starr was understandably proud of his sides effort.

"It was a real gutsy game," he said.

"Gunnedah gave it to us the whole 80 minutes and we just had to keep turning up for one another and just keep grinding and grinding, and that's what the whole game was - just a grind."

The way they finished the game couldn't have been any different to the way they started.

The kick-off didn't go the 10 setting off a chain of events that would see them go down to 13 for about eight minutes and spend the better part of the first 20 minutes camped in their 22 as the Red Devils' forwards stamped their authority on the game.

Powerhouse number eight Sanimo Navatu crashed over for a double in the first 10 minutes with the home sides' rolling maul causing Pirates some problems.

Brad Swain then finished off some slick work from the backs to have the Red Devils well on top.

But Pirates, as the saying goes, 'have been here before', and knew they would get their opportunity. It was a matter of taking it when they did.

"We just said we've just got to get up their end of the field and start building some pressure on them because they just had a great run in that first 15 minutes or whatever it was," Starr said.

"We knew it had to turn because that's the nature of footy so we just had to stay in there."

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They finally got a bit of territory and possession and gave the Red Devils a taste of their own medicine, Jack Shelton twisting out of a dominant rolling maul.

Starr then struck just before half-time to make it five point game at the break, and give them a lot of confidence going into the second half.

"We knew we were starting to play some good footy leading into half-time so we were confident if we could keep building that momentum we'd get back in the match," he said.

Pirates coach Mat Kelly felt the 10 minutes after half-time was defining.

"I always thought our first 10 minutes after half-time would be critical, and to play that 10 minutes well I thought we'd go a long way towards winning it," he said.

"That's our real crunch area. We tend to come home pretty well but after half-time that's our time - if we're on or we're not."

The Red Devils did kick away again midway through the half through Oscar Hunt but they had by then lost their dominant aura and Pirates hit straight back, Shelton scoring his second, and in almost identical fashion to his first.

It was like a heavyweight battle in the forwards at times, both sides landing punches.

But Pirates ultimately, and decisively, claimed the bragging rights there, their rolling maul and scrum proving a real weapon for them. They had deliberately focused a lot on their maul in the lead-up.

"I'd done a lot of research on them (Gunnedah) and I thought well we might as well fight fire with fire," Kelly said.

"They have a great one so we figured we'll see how good they are at defending them."

He paid credit to the experienced heads in his side and also singled out Ioasa.

He was the third half-back they used, Kelly turning to him when Jackson Sharpe, who had replaced Richie O'Halloran midway through the first half and was playing with an ACL injury, went down.

Starr also highlighted Ioasa's impact, along with Doug Biffin.

"Some of his defensive work, putting pressure on them was amazing," he said.

"And Chad Lambert.. You don't necessarily see big plays from him all day but if you watch any of the video footage he's just there all the time."