MOREE Bulls second grade held off a fast-finishing Tamworth Pirates to tighten their grip on the Central North rugby top spot after a 40-31 victory on Saturday.
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On a bitterly cold afternoon the Bulls took advantage of a howling southerly in the first half to set up a 26-12 lead at the break.
Despite a few defensive lapses in the second half it was a performance which pleased coach Josh Connell.
“We’re starting to play with the structure we want and they’re sticking to it. It was a bit of a high-scoring match and our defence was probably a little bit questionable, which has been one of our high points, but we’re all good for next week,” he said.
“Pirates are a good side, they’re just behind us on the table and we knew it was going to be tough whether it was 40-31 or 20-11; it was always going to be that type of score and that’s what we expected.”
Connell said fullback Kyle O’Connor was good yet again, but it was an overall solid team performance and narrowed it down to three players as best on the field.
“The pick of the three was probably Jared Snook our open-side (flanker), Monte (Brenton Montgomery) our centre and Willie Hiscox,” he said.
The under 18s also had a rare appearance at Weebolla Oval in 2014 and they celebrated with a 22-5 win over Pirates as they too continue to lead the way.
First grade then fought out a 27-all draw which now leaves them needing to walk a tightrope if they want to finish in the all-important top two, and coach Damien Kelly said it was a game they had “in the bag”.
“A 20-point lead in a game like that we should have been home and hosed, so if we don’t finish in the top two it’s exactly what we deserve,” he said.
"If we don’t finish in the top two it’s exactly what we deserve."
- DAMIEN KELLY
“We probably just blew any chance right here.”
The Bulls led 27-7 just after the break only to fall into old habits which saw Pirates receive a torrent of penalties from offences at the breakdown.
Kelly labelled the performance “dreadful and really disappointing”.
“We gave away too many penalties as usual,” he said. “We tried to win every breakdown instead of defending. I don’t know what the go is.
“That’s two weeks in a row we’ve tried to play rugby like that and you can’t do it. We speak about it and nothing changes so we need to have another hard look at ourselves.
