Leading 7-5 at the break and 14-5 six minutes into the second half, a Boars win looked likely before Cowra stormed home to win 27-19.

The return of skipper Israel Symington and try-scoring machine Marika Korovui was not enough to get the Boars home in a display that showed lots of determination.

The Eagles were desperate for a win to stay in touch with the top five and a chance at securing a finals berth.

Max Keith crossed twice for the home side in their last match at Northparkes Oval for 2014 while Riley Byrne scored the other Boars try and booted two conversions.

Parkes were forced to reshuffle their team again this week after Matt Hunter, Sam Standen, John Rathbone and Sam Lovell were all unavailable.

Dan Ryan moved to inside centre and made an impact immediately as he combined with gun back Riley Byrne to score from the kick-off.

Ryan made space before finding a flying Byrne who beat three would-be defenders to open the scoring.

Byrne converted his own try for a 7-0 Boars lead.

The advantage the visitors had in the extra size of their forward pack showed early on as they dominated the scrum.

They used their advantage well and showed discipline in attack to come within metres of the Boars line.

Breakaway Ben Ryan, captaining for the day, stole the ball at the breakdown and found Mahe Fangupo who cleared the ball to give the Boars some breathing space.

The Eagles desperation saw a lot of undisciplined mistakes during the first half which gave the much smaller Parkes pack opportunities to stop any attack and work the big players around the field.

With only minutes to go before half-time, Cowra were gifted a scrum on the Boars’ five metre line after a handling error by the home side.

Cowra lock Klaas Jan Hoogland used his massive body weight to push through the defence and put the ball down wide of the posts to open the visitors’ account.

The conversion was missed for the Boars to take a two point lead into the break.

Parkes started the stronger in the second half and pinned the Eagles inside their own 20.

Parkes gained possession five metres from the Cowra line when Ben Ryan stole a line out ball from an Eagles throw.

The Boars form a maul around Ben as they push the ball towards the line with very disciplined and controlled play. 

Max Keith takes the ball from the side of the maul to score next to the posts. 

Riley Byrne added the extras for the Boars to lead 14-5.

The Boars appeared to be set to score from the restart again when Amoni Vae caught the ball from the kick and ran through the defence to take it back beyond the 40 metre line. 

Ben Ryan found another 15 metres before being dragged down by desperate Cowra defence. 

Sam Denison took the ball and passed it out to James Dean. 

Dean flicked a pass to Nick Westcott that had Cowra scrambling to stop the Boars charge.

The attack was stopped when the next pass was deemed forward to give Cowra the scrum feed on their 10 metre line.

Shortly after, Cowra halfback Jimmy Montgomery broke through the Parkes defence and flicked the ball to loose head prop Ethan Cartwright. 

Cartwright looked certain to score before fullback Riley Byrne tackled him and then got his body between the ball and the ground to hold the ball up in goal.

The ball went back to the five metre line for a Cowra scrum win. 

Again the visitors looked destined to score before Parkes winger Derrik Thompson put his body on the line to hold up the ball.

From the second scrum restart, Cowra made no mistake when inside centre Jeremy Montgomery was assisted over the line by the Cowra forward pack. 

The conversion closed the margin to two points and had given Cowra a boost as they lifted their intensity.

Cowra hit the leads for the first time in the 25th minute of the second half when a Parkes infringement led to a Troy Jeffs penalty goal for 15-14.

Cowra controlled play from the restart and worked the ball to within 10 metres of the Boars line.

Max Keith continued his excellent game to steal the ball and get it wide to outside centre Marika Korovui.

Marika ran a tight angle to take the pressure off the defence and return the ball to the half way line.

A phase later, Cowra stole the ball at the breakdown and spread it wide to get back into attacking territory.

Five metres from the line, Cowra inside centre Jeremy Montgomery found a gap and crossed for Cowra’s third try.

The unsuccessful conversion saw Cowra lead 20-14.

With a sniff of victory, Cowra hammered the Parkes line with the other Montgomery, Jimmy, finding a gap to score under the posts. 

Jeffs made no mistake with the conversion for Cowra to open up a comfortable 27-14 lead.

With two minutes remaining, Parkes displayed a lot of pride and mounted an attack that forced the Cowra defence to scramble. 

From a line out win and maul, Max Keith found the line for his second try but it was too late for the Boars as Cowra ran out 27-19 winners.

Max Keith was the standout performer for the Boars, claiming three Best and Fairest points and Players’ Player honours.

Amoni Vae (2), Riley Byrne (1), James Dean (1) and Dylan Phillips (1) were all awarded Best and Fairest points.

Next week the Boars travel to Mudgee to face off against the Wombats.