Thunder missed the opportunity to host the lower Mid North Coast rugby union grand final the previous weekend and were convincingly defeated by the Bulls at Lank Bain Sporting Complex on September 26.

The Thunder and Bulls had met twice this season before the engagement, with a seven-point margin swinging in different directions each time. Wauchope held a 32-25 win in the second round and Wallamba posted a 15-8 victory late in the season.

In Saturday's match the Bulls pulled out all the stops early as they rushed to a 12-0 point lead. Beau Collins and Jake Schumacher delivering a try each for Wallamba, while Jacob Samoa made one conversion before halftime.

Wauchope responded with a try each from Oliver Pascoe and Michael Smith, pushing the score to 17-12 the Bulls way.

Despite two yellow cards late in the game, the Bulls charged home 22-12 and set themselves up for a grand final confrontation against Manning River, the current undefeated minor premiers.

Wallamba captain Daniel Hessing said the Bulls stayed strong against Wauchope and are ready to win the grand final next week.

"I think as we stayed composed and followed our structures, that just won us the game," he said.

"Once we did go away from that structure things got harder for us, but when we came back it was sweet.

"I'm not really concerned (about the yellow cards), it didn't really seem to alter our defence. We have just got to keep our penalties down.

"Given how the game went today, I think we are pretty sweet for the grand final."

Wauchope captain Ricky Taylor said the game was very disappointing.

"We had the players there but it just didn't turn out for us today, unfortunately that's the way it goes," he said.

"The season was good, we had a couple of ups and downs. But it's no good thinking about the season if you're not going to get there in the back end (to the grand final).

"We've got a good bunch of boys here so we are going to get back into pre-season training in a couples of months or so, come back bigger and better next year."

In the rugby union women's match, Wallamba defeated Gloucester 60-5. Sisters, Stella and Grace Tijou scored a bag of nine tries between them.

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