For the second consecutive season Orange Emus will host the Blowes Clothing Cup grand final after scoring a gritty, five-point major semi-final win over Forbes on Saturday.
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True to the nail-biting nature of the finals series so far, it took a remarkable effort after full-time to secure the victory too.
But where Bathurst Bulldogs stunned Orange City with ball in hand in extra-time of last week’s elimination semi-final, Emus overwhelmed the Platypi defensively in a thrilling, seven-minute-long final play.
Leading Forbes 10-5 with no time left on the clock, Emus were forced to hold out a barrage of attacking raids to hang on to the lead and ultimately earn the win.
The first of Forbes’ raids started on halfway after an Emus knock-on and lasted an astounding 29 consecutive phases, most of which were pick-and-drives on the greens’ line.
Forbes earned one penalty and got turned over but were awarded another penalty straight away, electing to take a scrum five metres out – a surprising move considering Emus’ scrum had been dominant the entire game.
Halfback Mahe Fangupo ran and the Platypi put together nine more phases after he was brought down, finally creating an overlap. An equalising try looked almost certain in the left corner of Endeavour’s northern end, but the final pass was wayward.
It found the turf and Emus replacement halfback Todd Freedman got a boot to it, sending it dribbling over the touchline to bring an end to the game in the 87th minute, sealing a home grand final for the greens in a fortnight.
“It’s brilliant, we wanted that home grand final and now we’ve got it,” Emus coach Paul Ringland said.
“The defensive effort at the end was incredible, the boys dug deep and kept turning them away and turning them away. It was a good, tough game which will be good for us I think.
“It’s just a fantastic win, we’ll hit the paddock hard now and try to improve again leading into the grand final.”
Emus worked their way into the grind quickly, taking the upper hand and then opening the scoring through inside centre Zac White.
White linked with five-eighth Carter Hirini in a simple second-man play, which gave the former room on the outside of his opposite number. He dived over out wide to give his side a five-point lead, which skipper Nigel Staniforth extended to seven with a successful conversion.
Forbes five-eighth Matt Kilgore had the chance to kick things off for the Platypi with a penalty goal, but he struck his attempt badly. It was waved away.
Up until the 44th minute the greens looked well in control of the game. Although Forbes had chances Emus’ wall didn’t seriously look like being broken, until Hammond did just that.
Although, he went around the greens, not through them.
Forbes’ persistence paid off four minutes after half-time, they created an overlap and Hammond found enough room to score in the right corner.
Again, Kilgore struck his shot at goal badly and it was waved away.
Staniforth slotted a penalty goal not long after to extend the greens’ lead to five and when Forbes prop Jake Cutler was sent to the sin-bin for an ugly late shot on Emus fullback AJ Sykes the hosts looked to have things wrapped up.
They played that way too, controlling possession and field position, until a ball-handling error gave the Platypi a scrum in the middle of the paddock and a sniff.
The Platypi almost turned that sniff into a come-from-behind win, but were denied by Emus’ outstanding work off the ball.
Forbes skipper Jack Hammond, who scored Forbes’ only try of the day, cut a dejected figure after full-time.
“It’s disappointing, but we couldn’t have done much more. We had a real crack at the end and we pushed Emus all the way but credit to them, they held us out,” Hammond said.
Forbes will host the winner of the minor semi-final in next weekend’s penultimate preliminary fixture.
“It’ll help having the preliminary final at home, that’ll be a boost. We’ll head back to the training paddock now, work even harder and hopefully be back [at Endeavour] in a fortnight,” Hammond said.
Ringland refused to hazard a guess at who his side might be seeing come grand final day.
“I really don’t know. Forbes played really well [on Saturday] but it’s too hard to pick,” he said.
“All the sides still in the competition could probably win it on their day, so we won’t worry too much about that, we’ll think more about it when our opponent’s definite.”
ORANGE EMUS 10 (Zac White try; Nigel Staniforth conversion, penalty goal) def FORBES PLATYPI 5 (Jack Hammond try)