However, it didn’t stop a record club crowd turning up the heat at Caltex Park as the Graincorp Cup (Northern) co-leaders Trangie Tigers and Dubbo Rhinos clashed in the game of the season. 

With so much at stake and with the winner getting the jump on its nearest rival for a home town semi-final in just a few short weeks, the result was not known until the final minutes when Trangie edged ahead by a point to win a thriller 14-13 to move four points ahead of the Rhinos.

During the past three weeks the Rhinos have scored only six points from two penalties in the second half of their matches. 

Last week, after leading 26-10 at oranges, they failed to hold out a fast-finishing Coolah to go down by 34-32. 

And so it was again last Friday when the locals took a handy lead of 13-0 into the break and couldn’t hold out Trangie’s two converted tries.

The game opened in the forwards with tight defence the cornerstone of both sides. 

Trangie had slightly the better of territory but the radar boot of Chris Hobson saw the locals go towards the break with six points on the board. 

Proud new dad Ricky Weatherall broke free near the line for the first try of the game, converted by Kade Goodwin, and the Rhinos were starting to show some consistency.

With scrums and lineouts fairly even and the Rhino defence the best it has been all year it seemed as though a home win was very much on the cards. 

With Chris Bellhouse and captain Brett Austin marshalling the troops and Vili Manu and Kane Rich tackling everything above the ground it seemed as though all they had to do was hang on and keep the game in the forwards.

But after about 25 minutes Trangie started to apply pressure to the Rhino pack which defended magnificently but was beginning to tire. A rarely seen pushover try resulted, converted and suddenly the complexion of the game changed dramatically.

Starving a tiring Rhinos of possession Trangie camped near the tryline and refused penalty kick after kick by taking quick taps and forcing errors. 

Referee Mawbey, who had great difficulty keeping the sides apart, whistled up play and warned Austin for repeated team infringements. This spurred on the visitors, throwing themselves at the line until a slight change in play saw the halfback dive over under the posts. 

With the conversion Trangie had grabbed a one-point lead with about seven minutes to go.

Not content to rest on their laurels Trangie increased the pressure, resulting in the referee calling out captain Austin for more infringements and producing a yellow card. 

As captain he accepted the card and left the field. 

Playing with only 14 men, and with time running out, Hobson attempted a 46-metre penalty kick which veered away at the last moment.

Moments later the referee raised his whistle and a large section of the crowd celebrated wildly.

Neither backline saw much clean ball and tended to cancel each other out the few times the ball was spun wide. Kicking was more the order of the day, looking to keep the opposition hemmed in their own danger zone and waiting for a mistake. 

Unfortunately it was the home side which faltered despite a game-long defensive effort of the season.