Parkes Boars left Jubilee Oval in Mudgee last Saturday with a sense of what could have been after they let a 19-0 lead slip against the Mudgee Wombats.
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The Wombats celebrated the club’s 140th anniversary with a hard-fought win in the Blowes Clothing Cup Round 17 match by running out 24-19 victors.
The Boars led 19-0 midway through the first half before the Wombats fought back to score three unanswered tries and kick a penalty goal to claim their second victory in the top grade this season.
The win saw Mudgee close the gap at the bottom of the table while they remain three points behind Parkes and face top of the table Dubbo Kangaroos to finish the season.
The Wombats would need a miracle to avoid the wooden spoon.
Mudgee looked certain to open the scoring in the seventh minute when Sam Schmidt made a big break but his pass to Cameron Rosamond, who was in support, was foiled by Boars fly-half Johnny Rathbone.
Neither side gave each other an inch with the match being brutal at times as the forwards went head-to-head.
It wasn’t until after a quarter of the match had gone before the first points were scored.
Parkes had a scrum on Mudgee’s try line and a neat dummy then an inside ball from Rathbone to Sam Lovell saw the outside centre slice through the Wombat defence for a 5-0 lead.
It sprung the Boars into action as they scored another try when fullback Riley Byrne made a good break down the sideline and fooled three Mudgee defenders by dummying to his winger to score under the posts for 12-0.
A couple of minutes later, a superb team-running try, saw the ball go through five pairs of hands and ended with scrum-half James Dean scoring to make it 19-0 for the Boars.
The Boars looked destined to break their losing streak before Mudgee was able to reply near half-time.
Toby Lewis put the ball down over the line in a mass of laid-out bodies for a 19-7 half-time score line.
The Wombats could not have asked for a better start to the second half when Adam Rayner scored from a tap under the sticks to make it 19-14.
It changed the momentum of the match.
For most of the second half, Parkes did a lot of defending in their own half as the Wombats piled on the pressure.
It paid off when Rayner slipped down the blind-side and scored his second try.
Brian O’Reilly’s sideline conversion put Mudgee into the lead by two points for the first time in the match.
The pressure was mounting for both sides, so much so, Mudgee took a penalty goal over attempting a try to extend their lead to 24-19.
Searching for a bonus point try, Mudgee continued to hit Parkes up the middle but the Boars’ defence was up to challenge and they were able to force turnovers.
However, in injury time, the momentum changed to Parkes thanks to back-to-back penalties.
The Boars had several opportunities to steal the game away from Mudgee but they were held out by a determined Wombats’ defence.
“We knew it was going to be tough coming over here,” Parkes coach Trevor Whitaker said.
“They are in the same boat as us at the bottom of the table.
“They put it in and they did well.
“Our forwards are pretty good but their forwards dominated today.
“They had a couple of speedy guys out on the wings who played very well.
“We made a lot of mistakes and that was enough to let Mudgee back into the game.
“We had five Colts out there and they had already played a game.
”We had a couple of second graders and they played a full game of second grade too.
“The lack of numbers has been the story of our year,” he said.
MUDGEE WOMBATS 24 (Adam Rayner 2, Toby Lewis tries; Rob McKid 2, penalty goal, Brian O’Reilly conversions) def PARKES BOARS 19 (Sam Lovell, Riley Byrne, James Dean tries; Dean 2 conversions).
