RUGBY LEAGUE
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A STEVE Lane and Terry Brown master-class at King George Oval inspired their Blayney Bears to a dominant 37-10 win over Bathurst St Pat’s in Sunday’s Group 10 premier league elimination semi-final, setting up a juicy minor semi-final clash with Mudgee Dragons next weekend.
Lane, playing halfback, produced a vintage performance in scoring two tries, laying on another, and snapping an opportunistic field goal while Brown, playing five-eighth, controlled field position for his side, constantly turning St Pat’s around and nailing two crucial 40-20s, and bagging a late try of his own to boot.
Granted, the pair were surrounded by a seemingly-possessed Bears side which produced its best performance of the year in toppling the Saints, displaying ball-handling and execution any side would be pleased with on a dry day, let alone in yesterday’s torrid conditions.
“I’m very happy with the boys. Last week against Lithgow (Workies) we only played 40 minutes of football ... so we knew coming out here today we had to play simple footy, and we had to execute,” Blayney captain-coach Dane Howarth said.
“I thought Terry Brown and Steve Lane were phenomenal today ... that’s three or four weeks in a row Terry’s kicking game has been on song, he’s really, really come into his own in the back half of the year.”
With puddles big enough to house the Loch Ness Monster forming across King George Oval, the two sides threw themselves into their work in brutal fashion in a bid to gain the upper hand early.
Blayney’s gargantuan forward pack did so and Lane opened the scoring after nine minutes - with hooker Cameron Dennis converting - on the back of a simple error from St Pat’s halfback Joey Coughlan, who threw a forward pass out of dummy half on his own 20 metre line.
St Pat’s hit back immediately though through prop Travis Waninara, but converted tries to Dennis and fullback Jesse Nixon saw the Bears lead 18-6 at the half-time break.
Showing a surprising level of preparedness, Blayney returned the field after a jersey change, and with Lane and Brown orchestrating proceeded to tear the Saints apart in the second period.
The visitors knocked on from the restart, and Lane grabbed his second after stepping around a number of St Pat’s defenders before Brown demoralised the Bathurst side with two 40-20s within 10 minutes of each other which both resulted in points - a Lane field goal, and Howarth try.
The Blayney five-eighth scored a try of his own after Lane kicked on the first from a scrum, and Brown won the footrace.
Dennis’ conversion gave his side an unassailable 37-6 lead with just minutes left on the clock, and despite a late St Pat’s consolation try through winger Adam Morton, Howarth went as far as labelling the win his side’s best performance of the year.
“It’s definitely the best 80 minutes we’ve put together this year. Considering the conditions it was a very good performance,” Howarth said.
“We knew it was going to be wet, I actually thought it might be wetter than what it was.
“But we played a pretty compact, simple type of game because of that. We had to work out corridors well and the execution was great considering the conditions.”
BLAYNEY BEARS 37 (Steve Lane 2, Terry Brown, Dane Howarth, Cameron Dennis, Jesse Nixon tries; Dennis 6 goals, Lane field goal) def BATHURST ST PAT’S 10 (Adam Morton, Travis Waninara tries; Gary Reilly goal)