THE South West Rocks Gaolers came to Port Macquarie on Saturday and nearly plundered the points from the Westport Club sponsored Pirates in their Mid-North Coast Rugby clash.
Pirates came away 32-15 victors, but the South West Rocks team was well in the game until Chris Geary stamped himself on the match in the middle of the second half.
The scores were locked at 15-all up until this point and the game could have gone either way.
The Gaolers forwards were matching the Pirates in this department and the South West Rocks backs kept their opposite Pirate numbers under control.
Tim Platt was the first to cross the line for the Pirates in the 10th minute, after injecting himself into the Pirates backline and continuing to back players up.
Five minutes later the Gaolers levelled the scores with an unconverted try.
South West Rocks jumped to the lead shortly after and with this unconverted try had a five -point lead.
Geoff Lee came to the Pirates’ aid with a burrowing try that levelled the scores at 10 apiece.
Two minutes later Tim Boyle, who was having an outstanding game at No. 10, was on the end of a Pirates overlap and put the Pirates in front 15-10.
This was the score at the halftime break.
The Gaolers equalled the scores in the third minute of the second stanza.
Despite the near ideal conditions, several attempts at penalty goal were
unsuccessful.
As game time counted down, the South West Rocks Gaolers were matching the Pirates in all aspects of the game and there was concern on the faces of the Pirates coaching staff.
Chris Geary, who had been having a strong game, took the ball just in the Gaolers half and with several defenders hanging on to him, broke through and scored a try to break the
deadlock.
Again the conversion attempt was unsuccessful.
Tim Boyle pilfered the ball from the attacking team just after the resumption of play and scored the try to give the Pirates a handy lead despite the inability to convert the try.
As the end of the game approached Geary again crossed the line and to the cheers of the crowd, converted his own try.
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