Narrabri blew Pirates off Dangar Park in the first half on Saturday as they made an emphatic return to form and gave a timely reminder that they are a serious premiership threat.
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After scraping past Moree with a try after the bell, and then being well-beaten by Inverell, the Blue Boars scored at better than a point a minute in the first half en route to a 51-19 demolition.
It was a big statement and the "most dominating win" over the four-times defending champions coach Jake Packer has experienced in his time with the club.
"Every time we've played them it's always been a tough game to the end," he said.
"(But) I think the whole team, and myself, really never felt threatened, I think we felt in control for a lot of the match."
Even when Pirates scored the first two tries in the second half. Mind you they were up 44-5.
But, as Packer pointed out, at times like that in the past they would have panicked a bit and two tries would lead to four.
"What we did really well was we didn't try to bounce back straight away, try to score straight away," he said.
"We really ground it out, played field position, territory."
That was one of the things he was most pleased about.
And while they only managed the one try in the second half, they only allowed Pirates those two.
"The whole game was really good from start to finish," Packer said.
"We didn't let the pressure off. And we didn't try and do anything other than what we'd trained."
He felt they had the last two weeks lost a bit of trust in their defence and the process, and had challenged them before the game to "trust what we've been doing".
And they did. They stuck to their systems and process, and got the reward.
It was a bit of a blueprint for the big games ahead.
"I don't think there's a side that can beat us if we throw what we did at Pirates," he said.
Linton Grumley continued his sensational season crossing for a hat-trick and picking up the three points.
"He just keeps on rolling," Packer said.
"His consistency and the way he's playing is unmatched this year."
The win saw the Blue Boars jump back into second as the musical chairs between second, third and fourth continued and leaves Pirates with a big fight on their hands to host a final as they dropped back to fourth.
Their fourth loss against one of the top five on the road this season, Pirates co-coach Doug Biffin said he couldn't really put a finger on what happened.
The effort was there, but similar to Inverell three weeks ago they just "didn't fire" in the first half.
There was obvious reason for it. Their preparation was good, and they didn't really have any personnel disruptions.
"They (Narrabri) played well," Biffin acknowledged.
"They attacked our short side, got a few miss-matches and found some space."
They also "worked over" their scrum "a little bit early" and dominated at the ruck, either upsetting or disrupting their ruck when they had the ball, well.
He said it's not at "crisis meeting talks" stage but there are certainly some things they need to address,
"We haven't really got the aggression," Biffin said.
"I think the other thing too is we've got a team of non-talkers, guys that are very quiet."
"Something we need to work on is our communication in attack and defence.
"Our momentum starts from the talk really."
He thought Brendan Rixon and Tim Collins were their best.
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