Blues v Cowboys - Round 13: Narrabri too good for plucky Dungowan | Group 4

The Blues went into the game as competition leaders and sparkled their way to a 30-6 lead at the 30th minute mark following two tries to Caleb Binge - the former Gold Coast Titan - and tries to Damon Gleeson, Lachlan Trindall and Sam Sadler.

Nestled in between the fourth and fifth tries was a Cowboy try for Kieren Croft but it was the Blues who were dominant, making just the one error in being unable to grass Croft in his 20m try.

Read also:

Apart from that, it was an impressive period and they completed the half with two more tries as Hayden Bell regained his own grubber kick off the goalpost to score and then Toby Bentley changed the play when the full-time siren went, feinted and stepped back inside to crash over under the posts.

Ahead 42-10 at half-time, the Blues talked about repeating their first half form but couldn't maintain the intensity as Dungowan refused to give in and scrapped for every ball and play in the second half.

The Cowboys won the second half 16-14.

Cowboys captain-coach Shaun Ferguson - who was outstanding and started many raids with his bullocking runs, perfect passes and some flicked delights - thought his side fought back well all game.

"[We] didn't have a good start. Narrabri were good but we didn't get the bounce of the ball and couldn't get in the grind, couldn't control the ball," he said.

"Our second half was much better. No one went missing, no one pulled out but we didn't have much fluency either. There's plenty to build on next year too."

The Cowboys are due to finish their season at Scully Park this Saturday, although the final round is now in doubt due to the pandemic.

"It's our Old Boys Day [on Saturday] and we're also celebrating 20 years of the Cowboys too," Ferguson said.

Narrabri captain-coach Jake Rumsby was delighted with the first half hour.

"We wanted to start well, haven't done it all year," Rumsby said.

"We did that today. Showed we can do it, that we can play good when we control the ball. Everything worked well."

The Blues were virtually faultless in that first half hour, with Binge dominant in attack and defence.

The stocky prop was almost impossible to stop, taking two and three defenders out with every rush and then making quick play the balls.

He even tackled a few Cowboys when he had the ball!

"We talked about starting well again in the second half at half-time," Rumsby said.

"But we didn't have the same intensity and made plenty of mistakes.

"There's a few things we have to work on for next week. That's going to be a huge game for us at home to North Tamworth.

"We can be No 1 [minor premiers] if we win it ... We want to have a home semi for the first time in a long time. That's what we've been training for all year and we need to keep winning to have that."

Blues hooker Todd Nichols was a threat from dummy half and produced some huge line dropouts that sailed 55m on the fly.

Blues five-eighth Bell also had a hand in a number of tries, and Blues centre Dennis Gordon was dangerous throughout.

Damon Gleeson and Daniel Howe also produced impressive displays for Narrabri.

The Cowboys were best served by Ferguson, Brett Jarrett and young plasterer Cody Byrne.

NARRABRI 56 (Caleb Binge 2, Damon Gleeson, Lachlan Trindall, Sam Sadler, Hayden Bell, Toby Bentley, Dennis Gordon, Brendan Davey, Mark Patterson tries; Todd Nichols 8 goals) d DUNGOWAN 26 (Kieren Croft, Jone Marau, Brodie Heron, Cody Byrne, Matt Wilson tries; Trent Taylor 3 goals).

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: