Beware the rampant Manildra Rhinos.
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As Manildra came up against Orange United Warriors in Woodbridge Cup, the first 50 minutes had the Rhinos caged.
However, in the final half an hour they were let loose and boy did they go on a rampage.
Trailing 22-0 after 46 minutes, Manildra managed to mount an inspiring comeback as Lachie Sharp emerged the hero with two tries to seal a 24-22 victory.
"They (Orange United) played some really good footy and showed why they'll be top of the competition and pushing for finals at the back end but we just rallied there at the end and got away with it," Manildra captain-coach Luke Petrie said.
"It probably wasn't our best performance, taking nothing away from United they made it very tough for us but I think if we can play how we did in that back 20 (minutes) we can be where we need to be."
Orange had fans out of their seat in the first six minutes as an error from Manildra allowed winger Ben French to run 80 metres and make the score 4-0.
Minutes later, a stoppage occurred with Rhinos centre Tom Satterthwaite stretchered off as he appeared to injure his right knee.
In the 24th minute, Warriors fullback Josh Dugan showed his defensive strength to hold up Manildra over the line before Jake Kelly put Ben Williams through a hole minutes later to make it 10-0.
A dust up five minutes before half-time resulted a player from Manildra and Orange being sent to the sin-bin. Manildra were down to 11-men not long after with Grant Williams in the bin for a professional foul.
Kelly made the most of one extra man right on half-time, chipping over the top to find the hands of Tyren Dixon who made it 16-0.
After half-time, Ben French was running the field again, picking up a grubber on his goal-line and striding away as the Warriors led 22-0.
In the 56th minute, Manildra halfback Will Petrie was over the line before Nick Smith ran a hard line not long after to make it 22-8.
A terrific spread of hands in the 64th minute allowed Ollie Keegan to score in the corner as the momentum swung significantly to the Rhinos.
With the score 22-12 and Manildra needing a massive effort, Lachie Sharp made his presence known.
After Manildra made a break down the left touchline, a grubber infield saw Ben McAlpine, Luke Petrie and Sharp in support with the latter landing on the ball to make it 22-18.
With eight minutes to go, Manildra were in attacking territory again and it was that man Sharp, scooting from dummy-half right on the line to score and seal an unbelievable 24-22 victory.
"It was pretty special, I saw the gap and thought I'd have a dig," an ecstatic Sharp said.
"(The comeback) was just based off motivation, at half-time we just dug deep and said we need to get back to our original team and all come together with 11 players on the field and hook in."
A relieved coach was delighted to see Sharp finish with the winner.
"Hugh Gibson, Lachie Sharp are small boys but they'll just go all day and love winning, boys like that are just unreal to have in your team," he said.
"I was very happy for Sharpy, he had a fair bit to say in the first half and it was good to see him get a couple of tries at the end there and play a good game of footy.
"The boys are just competitive and hate losing so they just dug in with the attitude they've got."
Orange's captain-coach Jake Kelly believed it was a tale of two halves for his boys with discipline proving costly.
"I felt we started off really strong, the first 40 minutes probably showed we're one of the teams that'll be up there as well," he said.
"Obviously discipline is probably what let us down as well ... it was a hard loss because at the end of the day two points is better than anything really.
"Everybody stepped up again today though, it was just the last 40 minutes we decided to take the foot off the throttle which hurt in the end but we'll re-group and get back into it at training.
"A lot of it comes down to the boys thinking we already had it in the bag, we got very complacent and thought we were ... week in, week out we play footy for 60 minutes and drop off for 20, I'm not too sure why but it's stuff we'll work on at training and get better each week.
"There's a lot to take away from it, especially when teams didn't think we'd be up there this year and we really showed and proved in that first 60 minutes that we're a team to compete with this year."
While the loss was disappointing, Kelly had special praise for his winger Ben French as the youngster continues to impress on the wing.
"Benny French was on fire, him pushing out wide has been phenomenal for us, he finds his groove out there and gets so much confidence," he said.
"The pace on him, it was unreal today."
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