CNRU major semi-finals: Narrabri to host Pirates in preliminary final after going down to Gunnedah 17-nil

Coming off a final round win over their semi-final opponents just two weeks ago, the Blue Boars went in confident and started well. But the Red Devils just did the little things better in the wet conditions to emerge victorious 17-nil and leave the Blue Boars to face Pirates next Saturday to keep their premiership hopes alive.

It will be a bit of de javu with the the Blue Boars in the same situation three years ago. Then it was Walcha they played in the major semi-final before coming up against eventual champions Pirates in the preliminary final.

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Acknowledging that the Red Devils were "the better team on the day", co-captain Jacob Nichols said they are still confident they can get there, the conditions on Saturday not really suiting the expansive game they like to play.

"It was a hard slog out there, terrible conditions," he said.

"I thought we started well. We didn't finish too well obviously."

They had the better of the play for probably the first 15 minutes and had the first couple of opportunities at points. But on what was a tough kicking day, they couldn't capitalise.

The game then turned when electric Red Devils winger Emori Waqavulagi brushed off five defenders to score pretty much out of nothing. It got the Red Devils tails up, and the Blue Boars didn't really have another scoring opportunity in the first half to, from potentially 6-nil up, find themselves down 11-nil at the break.

From there it was always going to be tough.

Illdiscipline was a big killer for the Blue Boars. The penalties enabled the Red Devils to keep the scoreboard ticking over and keep the pressure on, and stifled them from really finding any rhythm.

"Every time we seemed to get in their half we gave away a silly penalty or dropped the ball," Nichols said.

"The dropped ball you can deal with (in the conditions), the penalties are probably inexcusable."

They didn't give up though, still pressing to the end, and did on the whole muscle up well in the defence.

Nichols highlighted that as one of the positives they will take into next week.

"They only scored the one try and it was like off the cuff," he said.

"Apart from that, our defence held really well.

"I thought that was really positive."

The Blue Boars will host the preliminary final and also have their women's side playing for a grand final berth after they went down to Pirates 24-10.

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