The Parkes Boars welcomed back their Country stars but it wasn’t enough to tame the Narromine Gorillas in testing conditions in Parkes on Saturday.
Narromine are traditionally a big tough side – the competition is always 80 minutes of tough rugby.
Parkes were still in the game at half-time, trailing just 10-0, but would not stop the Narromine juggernaut in the second half to go down 36-7.
It was a bleak day for the Boars in front of their home crowd, going down in all three grades – the second grade 27-5 and Colts 5-0.
Country representatives, Dan Ryan and Amoni Vea were back with the side after a month away and were among the best players on the field.
But Narromine was just too strong leaving Boars coach Trevor Whittaker lost for words after the match.
“I just don’t know what to say,” he said.
Parkes started strongly keeping the ball in the Naromine half for the first 10 minutes.
A soggy ball and freezing conditions did not help either team.
Parkes took a while to settle back into a routine. Luke Freeman started on the wing to replace the unavailable Jacob Brady and young James Dean ran on as inside centre to replace the unavailable Matt Hunter.
First points were scored by Narromine from a penalty scrum 22 minutes into first half.
A successful conversion gave Narromine a seven point lead.
The Boars attacked the line but were denied twice in eight minutes, held up over the line.
Narromine were awarded a penalty on the 22 and opted for the penalty goal – adding the points to give them a 10-0 lead at the break.
Coach Whittaker made some major changes for the second half with Dan Ryan moving into the centres, Ben Ryan into lock and Luke Freeman to breakaway.
James Dean moved to the wing.
The reshuffle gave the centres more depth but still the Boars struggled with the big Narromine pack.
Parkes appeared to have the better of the lineouts and the scrums were pretty even across the game.
But the Boars certainly had the higher penalty count which really impacted on their ability to keep the ball moving forward.
The Boars’ defence prevented more damage being done to the score but even so Narromine crossed twice more in 30 minutes to seal a victory.
Johnny Rathbone ensured the Boars did not finish scoreless, by scoring a try.
With injuries dogging the Boars Narromine took advantage and crossed twice in the final six minutes of the game to really blow out the scoreline – finishing five tries to one.
As rain, hail, sunshine and chilling winds swept the Northparkes Oval the Boars would like to thank their supporters who braved the conditions to support them.