The Moree Boars’ finals hopes have been dashed, after losing 44-24 to West Lions at Boughton Oval on Saturday.
In the battle of first versus last, the underdogs had a brief sniff of victory, before their sloppiness in defence allowed the visitors to run away with the win.
The Boars’ body language was telling: with the ball they were aggressive and decisive; without it they were half-hearted and tentative.
Yet with the score 16-16 at the break, an upset loomed, before the Lions’ experience and class came to the fore in the second half.
Wingers Mitchell Cosgrove and Harry Key combined with centre Jerrod See to give Moree a 4-0 lead in the 12th minute.
Defending 20m out, Cosgrove took a try-saving intercept and dashed 50m. Taking possession from dummy half, See surprised Wests by going blindside. He drew the defence and offloaded to Key, who forced his way over.
But the visitors responded with tries in the 16th, 19th and 30th minutes, to make it 16-4. Tellingly, they were able to advance at least 80m in the lead-up to each try, as the Boars repeatedly slipped off tackles and failed to maintain their proper place in the line.
A thrashing looked likely, only for Moree to fight back and level the match with two tries in the final three minutes of the half.
For the first try, the hosts received the ball on halfway, after Wests had kicked out on the full. They initially worked the right hand side with a series of determined hit-ups, before the ball was crisply moved left, where Key was able to run through a stretched line and bag his second.
Two minutes later, the Boars were again gifted possession, this time through a knock-on 30m out. Hooker Stan Swan made a darting blindside run, threw a series of dummies and barged over.
If the Boars had the momentum, the Lions snatched it back soon after the restart, as they jumped out to a 26-16 lead.
After just two minutes, a missed tackle on halfway by prop Jeremy Ritchie let the opposition in.
Six minutes later, they were gifted a passage to the try-line in almost the exact same place, after fullback Ben Williams and halfback Ben Bailey both tried to tackle Wests’ Phil Beaton, but only succeeded in taking out one another.
The Boars, though, would not lie down, and were able to cut the deficit to 26-20 in the 53rd minute.
From a penalty tap 10m out, they probed the opposition line on the first three tackles. Suddenly, on the fourth, they crisply moved the ball left, creating a big overlap for Williams to score in the corner.
The Lions scored a soft try five minutes later, before the Boars crossed the line for the final time in the 68th minute.
The move began 65m out, with See retrieving a dropped ball and making an elusive run into the Wests’ half. Several tackles later, Williams was able to cross in the left corner, after being played in by five-eighth Daryl Ellis, to make it 32-24.
But the Boars’ faint hopes of victory were quickly dashed, as the Lions were allowed another two soft tries.
Boars coach Gavin Hann cut a disappointed figure after the match, although he said that the players could “hold their heads high” for taking the game to the competition leaders.
He attributed the loss to inexperience, pointing out that injuries had forced him to add three juniors to an already young side.
In attack, Hann said, the youngsters had received the ball at the wrong time, resulting in some wrong decisions and a low completion rate. In defence, their inexperience was demonstrated with faulty tackling technique and incorrect positioning.
Opposition coach Tony Lachiusa also paid tribute to Moree, in particular second rower Marshall Barker and lock Alex Barker.
Having had a few easy wins of late, he said that the physical, competitive encounter offered the ideal preparation for the finals.
“We wanted a tough game and we got one.”
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