Forbes half-back Adam Hall, second-rower Pat Rosser and his Parkes team-mate, hooker Benjamin John will play for Country in a match against Queensland Country at Roma on July 24.

Also in the team, to be coached by Bathurst’s Dave Elvy, are Ben McAlpine (Orange CYMS) on the wing; captain and half-back Warick Colley from Mudgee; lock Matt Finlayson (Mudgee) and Todd Barrow (Orange Hawks), who is one of the bench players.

Another squad member is former Narromine Jets and Orange CYMS prop Luke Thompson (Leeton), who had a great game for Group 20 in the final.

Group 11 captain and man of the match in the Parkes game, Dennis Moran, had previously been selected in the Country Firsts team to play Queensland Rangers on July 10 at Bundaberg.

However the Group 11 players weren’t really in any mood to be celebrating

their Country selection

after handing up to Group

20 in the final minutes - a game that they should have won after leading by 12 points with 16 minutes remaining.

After excellent tries by Parkes winger Marika Koroivui, Moran and the Wellington backrower Justin Toomey-White, Group 11 led 16-10 at half-time.

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In that period Moran’s kicking game was important and the defence had forced numerous errors from Group 20.

Sadly for Group 11 they were also guilty of mistakes which led to the visitors scoring their two tries.

On the first occasion Marika had the sun in his eyes, allowing a kick-off to go into touch and soon after hooker Andrew Lavaka opened Group 20’s account.

Then, just on half-time, a Group 11 turnover gave Group 20 a final shot and this time centre Wily Newton scored a soft try.

To be just six points in front wasn’t really a true indication of how the game had been played out in those first 40 minutes.

Group 11 had enjoyed most of the field position and they were holding their own in the forwards.

Seven times they had been denied by stout Group 20 defence on their own line.

But any joy for Group 11 was short lived and it started with Moran kicking out on the full from the kick-off.

In the first 22 minutes seven tries were scored - firstly three from Group 20, and it was anyone’s guess who was going to win the trophy.

Group 20 made their mark with three unanswered tries in the first nine minutes after the break to lead 24-16 before Group 11 hit back with four tries of their own in the next 11 minutes to get out to 36-24 with just 16 minutes left on the clock.

That should have been the section for Group 20 - but it wasn’t.

As they had showed in previous games, Group 20 wasn’t finished yet and in the space of three minutes they scored two tries to lock up the scores 36-all and it seemed we would be in for extra time.

And there was still more drama to come. Moran’s kick for the restart twisted into touch and Group 11 was in possession from the scrum with the game at their mercy.

But on the third tackle for some reason Moran attempted a field goal that went wide of the mark.

From the restart a desperate Group 20 powered down field before going to the right for replacement Andrew Smith to score the winning try as the fulltime siren sounded.

It was the second time in a week for Smith to be the hero. Last Saturday at Cowra he scored in golden point time to see Group 20 go into the final at the expense of Group 10.