RUGBY UNION
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A DEFIANT defensive effort during a frenetic final 25 minutes helped the Orange City Lions hold off the fast-finishing Cowra Eagles at Pride Park on Saturday afternoon and claim a two-point Blowes Clothing Cup win, bouncing back from their ugly loss to Forbes a fortnight ago in the process.
Although the Lions did concede two tries, considering the sheer weight of clean possession and field position the Eagles enjoyed during that period Orange City's defensive effort remained impressive.
Leading 26-12 with 55 minutes elapsed Orange City was forced to defend inside their own half, for the most part their own 22, as the Eagles mounted countless attacking raids in search of the 15 points which would see them steal an unlikely victory.
After plenty of sustained pressure and a number of penalties - Cowra enjoyed an 8-2 penalty count in their favour in the second half alone - they did get within reach, through Tom Dewhurst and Adam Higgins in the 60th and 76th minutes respectively.
But, the Lions held firm in the shadows of full-time to claim a gritty 26-24 win.
"We certainly looked better in defence than we did against Forbes and there was a lot more enthusiasm," Orange City coach Steve Hamson said.
"But we gave away a lot of penalties. To give away that many penalties and to play without the ball for the majority of the second half, we barely had any ball, was good. We're happy with that.
"We showed plenty of heart in that one. The set-piece was quite good too, our scrum finally moved forward at times."
After a scoreless opening 17 minutes Ben Wright barged his way over the give the Lions the lead on the back of his side finally putting some phase-play together.
Every time they did so in the game, they scored.
Cowra hooker Ethan Cartwright cancelled Wright's try out just three minutes later though, and fullback Alex Webster's conversion tied things up at 7-7.
It wasn't a sign of things to come for Webster, who missed two conversion attempts and two penalty goals throughout the remainder of the game.
Cameron Cole and Feleti Wolfgramm crossed in the 31st and 35th minutes respectively, before Eagles skipper Chris Miller was shown yellow for using his boots just before half-time.
Dwyer missed one conversion and Keegan Harding slotted the other despite kicking it off the ground and it being touched mid-air, for Orange City to lead 19-7 at the break.
While Miller was in the bin Cowra were the better side and Matt Spicer took advantage to score out wide, but Lions replacement prop Sena Fatai hit back for his side five minutes later.
The Eagles shifted up a gear with Dewhurst scoring in the 60th and spent the next 20 minutes camped in Orange City's half - except for a couple of Lions half-breaks which went unfinished.
Higgins went over after back-to-back penalties with four minutes to go and Webster hit the mark to make it 26-24, but the Lions held strong.
"We played the full 80 minutes, which was an aim of ours and encouraging but we went away from our game-plan a little bit which we haven't done for the last three weeks, we'll look at that," Cowra coach Troy Hayes said.
"The last 10 minutes was pretty good but we needed to fix up some things in the 70 minutes before that. We missed goals and made silly errors, but they're things to look at for next weekend now."
ORANGE CITY LIONS 26 (Ben Wright, Cameron Cole, Feleti Wolfgramm, Sena Fatai tries; Keegan Harding 2, Sam Dwyer conversions) def COWRA EAGLES 24 (Ethan Cartwright, Matt Spicer, Tom Dewhurst, Adam Higgins tries; Alex Webster 2 conversions)