A SENSATIONAL five-try performance from winger Bart Young led Orange City to victory over the Dubbo Roos on Saturday as the Lions advanced to the 2014 Blowes Clothing Cup second grade grand final.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Young had a hat-trick by half-time but that was cancelled out by tries to Josh Croke and Nic Moore as well as penalty to Chris O'Shea to have the scores at 17-all.
Orange didn't drop their intensity in the second stanza and while the win was fully deserved, a couple of late tries resulted in the score not being a true indication of the match.
Dubbo co-coach Vince Gordon was disappointed to lose after being in the contest for so long but said his side proved they could compete with the minor premiers.
"At half-time we were in the game at 17-all and they wanted it more in the second half, that's all it is," he said.
"They can be beaten and we can win, that's it, we've definitely got to improve our intensity and our will to win but they can be beaten and if we want to, we can give it a crack."
The match got off to a flying start as Dubbo led 17-12 after 15 minutes after tries Croke and Moore cancelled out Young's double.
The elusive winger went over again shortly before the break to have things all square and after a quiet start to the second half he was on hand to scoop up a dropped ball and score his fourth.
Dubbo, led by the outstanding Simon Murphy, didn't give up but a try to Sam Coote extended City's lead to 29-17 before Roos centre Vince Williamson reduced the deficit when he finished off a flowing backline move.
With only seven points the difference the Roos threw everything at City but with star number eight Tatafu Naanimoto leading the way, City were able to work their way out of trouble and a couple of late tries to John Brennan and Young again added some gloss to the result.
Gordon said the Roos had plenty of work to do during the week but his Orange City counterpart was in no doubt the Lions and Roos would be meeting again this season.
"There's still some stuff to work on, a couple of our props are still to come back and that will help because Dubbo were dominant up front and I'm sure we'll be playing them again," City coach Dave Cleal said.
o ORANGE CITY 41 (Barton Young 5, Sam Coote, John Brennan tries; Jackson Coote 3 goals) def DUBBO KANGAROOS 22 (Josh Croke, Nic Moore, Vince Williamson tries; Chris O'Shea 2 goals, 1 penalty)