Two moments of brilliance helped the Boomerangs come from behind in a 46-40 win over Warialda at Taylor Oval on Saturday.
Trailing 34-28 with a quarter of the game left, the home side scored two breathtaking tries in three minutes, to take a lead that they never relinquished.
The first try came after the Boomerangs were awarded a 20m restart. After advancing into the opposition half, halfback Kialu Brown used his pace and guile to bust the line.
Twenty-five metres out, with the cover defence about to tackle him, he flicked the ball to five-eighth Chris Swan. Swan chipped, regathered and immediately passed inside to Brown, who then threw another flick pass to George Sharpley. As the winger crossed under the posts, an enormous cheer rang around the ground.
The Boomerangs were soon in again, scoring from their first set of six after the restart.
Having just passed halfway, fullback Lloyd Munro Jr. burst through a gap and then chipped an onrushing defender. Swan reached the ball first, picked it up and then deliberately kicked it off the outside of his boot, putting it about 10m in front of Brown, who was about the same distance to his right and tearing through. As the ball bounced up on the tryline, he dived ahead of a desperate defender, catching and grounding in one motion. The crowd responded with an almighty roar.
It was fitting that the trio should have combined to score the seventh of Moree’s eight tries, because they were easily their most threatening players. The halves used their trickery to wreak havoc in the Warialda defence, while Munro Jr. used his pace and timing to repeatedly burst through gaps.
But while the Boomerangs demonstrated skill in attack, their defence was of a much lower standard. The scoreboard told the story: their deficiencies without the ball were slightly outweighed by their talent with it.
Notably, almost all of Warialda’s tries were scored on the wings. That was partly because of poor sliding on the home side’s part, which allowed their opponents to outflank them repeatedly. But it was also due to the Boomerangs’ soft centre; as Warialda broke through the middle, they sucked in defenders, thereby creating overlaps out wide.
Warialda skipped out to an early 12-0 lead, before centre Alf Duncan scored the first of two tries. The extras were added by hooker Willie Fernando, who would go on to convert all but one of the Moree tries, despite a challenging wind.
Gordon’s centre partner, Aaron Gordon, also bagged a first-half double, although it was the visitors who led at halftime, 26-22.
Second rower Warren Cain scored a wonderful solo try immediately after the restart, only for Warialda to respond with two of their own and make the score 34-28.
Those two magical tries gave the Boomerangs a 40-34 lead, and with 15 minutes to go, Sharpley made it 46-34. Despite a few nervy moments, the home side were able to see out the game comfortably.
Publicity officer Lloyd Munro called it “a good result for the Boomerangs”, against a team that “really put it to us”.
“Our blokes had to pick up a notch in the second half - and they did it.”
Although pleased with the win, he said that the coaches will be working on defence at training this week.
Kialu Brown agreed, saying that the Boomerangs “need a lot of improvement in defence”.
Nevertheless, he expects to beat Tingha on Sunday. “We should beat them at home. They don’t travel well away.”
In the other games, the reserves won 58-10 and the under-18s won 36-16, while the ladies’ tag finished 4-4.
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