Poor discipline mars strong effort

Cowra managed to hold off the Boars 35-22 at the Cowra Rugby Ground when they sealed the victory in the final stages after being awarded a penalty try.

In one of the most exciting and dramatic matches in Cowra this season, the home fans breathed a huge sigh of relief when the final whistle blew, in a game many would of talked about over the rest of their weekend.

For long phases of the match, the Boars equalled if not dominated the home side, but a lack of discipline hurt the visitors when it mattered, allowing the Eagles to claim the points and keep their 2015 Blowes Clothing Cup season alive.

With 12 minutes remaining, the Boars had clawed their way to within a converted of the lead and were awarded a penalty after a scrap between the two sides' wingers busted out of control.

The tension built, and Parkes slowly worked their way to within 25 metres of Cowra's try line but Eagles' captain, Chris Miller, pounced on a loose ball and offloaded to his five-eight, Troy Jeffs.

Jeffs kicked and won the footrace before being blatantly taken out and thrown into touch by a Parkes defender and the referee had no choice but award a penalty try.

With the lead extended to 13, the home side knew they'd done the job and the whistle blew moments after the restart.

"It was definitely a penalty try, there was no certainty he was going to score the try, but the way he took him out was not good," Parkes coach Trevor Whitaker said.

"Our discipline let us down, it let us down big time as we saw at the end with the penalty try."

Cowra began the match with a point to prove after being brushed by the Orange Emus on their 50th anniversary last weekend.

No 8 Jan Hoogland led the charge with several strong runs in the opening exchanges, something he continued throughout the whole match and was rewarded for with a match double.

Winger John Clack opened the scoring though as a result of some good work for Tom Dewhurst getting a ball away to create an overlap before Aaron Denzel booted the conversion.

Hoogland was in soon after after crashing over from the back of a scrum and the successful conversion gave the home side a 14-0 lead.

Parkes found some possession and built on several attacking phases inside the Eagles' half and converted the pressure into points when Sam Denison grabbed an unconverted five-pointer just before the break.

The deficit was soon reduced to six when Warren Lowe knocked over a penalty, but back to back to tries, one to Jeffs and then Hoogland had the Eagles eyeing-off a dominant victory.

But a comeback emerged, and it was led by Parkes captain Dan Ryan.

The classy No 8 touched down from a ruck before he placed a perfect flat pass for bench player Iszaac Oliver to catch and stroll over next to the uprights, all within a 10 minute period, and the scores quickly changed to 28-22.

The match became more physical and it erupted with five minutes to play.

A scrap unfolded directly in front the crowd involving several players from both sides for nearly 60 seconds before the match came to halt.

The referee gave Parkes the penalty, and an opportunity to take out the match, but they failed to do so and the penalty try to Cowra which followed marred the visitors' massive effort throughout the 80 minutes.