THERE'S just 80 minutes of rugby left for the Hastings Valley Vikings to go one better than they did last year.
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The club overcame traditional rivals the Port Macquarie Pirates on the weekend 16-11 to claim home town bragging rights.
Now they have just one more game left to improve on last year when they went down to the Pirates in the Rugby Mid North Coast grand final.
The Vikings will enjoy a week off to ready themselves for the big game while the Pirates are forced to play off this weekend against either Coffs Rugby or the Kempsey Cannonballs.
The winner of that game will take the second spot in the grand final.
It was a big day for the Vikings with their reserve grade side also winning a spot in their grand final.
But the main event saw the Vikings open the scoring on the 10 minute mark with playmaker Adam McCormack crossing for the first of his two tries for the day.
The teams then traded penalty goals to go into the half time break 11-6 the Vikings way.
It was the Pirates who hit back first in the second half to bring the score back to level pegging at 11-all.
But McCormack turned it on crossing for his second. The conversion missed and the Vikings took the lead with 15 minutes left in the game.
It was heart in the throat rugby for Vikings in the last few minutes with a converted try all the Pirates needed to take the game.
But the Vikings defence held tough and they claimed their spot in the grand final in a fortnights time.
President David Barnes said it was some of the most entertaining rugby he'd seen.
"It was definitely edge of your seat kind of thing in the last few minutes," he said.
"It was very nerve wracking especially when we had a player sent off."
A Vikings player was sent from the field for a team infringement and the team were forced to see off the late Pirates charge a man down.
"It's given us a lot of confidence to be able to keep the Pirates tryless and only concede penalty goals," he said.
Barnes said the first grade side was encouraged by the reserves big win in the curtain raiser to the main event.
The win means it will be the first ever Vikings reserve grade side to contest a grand final.
