WITH less than a minute to go, the ball in hand and a four-man overlap on the left wing, the Blobfish looked destined to spring an upset over the powerhouse Easts Rugby Club outfit in Saturday's Building Durability Bathurst Rugby 10s cup final.
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But as the Blobfish put the ball through hands in search of the match winning try, Easts back rower Jack Turley plucked an intercept. He ran away to score his second try of the final and hand his side a 12-5 win at Ashwood Park.
Turley's effort mean Easts not only finished the day undefeated across five games, but claimed its third Bathurst 10s crown in four years.
"He's a Kiwi import we scouted from Scotland actually. He comes from the North Island there in New Zealand then went to Scotland but we just poached him," Easts captain James Behringer said of Turley.
Before Turley's match-winning play, it was the Orange-based Blobfish side that made the stronger start to the decider.
While underdogs as they ranked second behind Easts following their four pool games, the Blobfish were keen to go better than 2018 when taking out the plate final.
Harry Cummins helped them take a step towards that goal with an impressive opening half, cutting down an Easts rival when he found space down the right wing then scoring Blobfish's first try.
Donny Freeman was also strong in defence for the Blobfish in the first half and they went to the break up 5-0.
But after kicking off in the second half, Easts then pilfered the ball at the breakdown and as Turley showed his strength to reach out and plant the ball over the line, it was all square.
The drop-kick conversion was a success and moved Easts into a 7-5 lead with just under six minutes left.
Play remained tight but when the Blobfish created an overlap following a scrum it looked as if they would snatch a late winner. Instead it was Turley who snatched it.
Behringer was happy with the way his side responded under pressure from the Blobfish and made amends for going down to Newcastle Wanderers in last year's final.
"We hadn't been down all day today actually, so it sent shudders through the boys, but we had a bit of a yarn there at half-time and we though we'd pull our fingers out. With the wind at our backs we came through with the result," he said.
"We've taken boys from all four grades and some of these boys haven't actually played for Easts before, but we all rallied together under the one jersey and came away with the result, so we're very happy.
"We had a couple of costly errors last year there in the final, but this year that wasn't what happened."
As well as Turley, the captain nominated two other Beasties who impressed.
"There was big standout for us, Elliott Frawley, he was taking the big hit ups and made the big meters all day - he was one we couldn't have done without," he said.
"Another one was Charlie Cooper, he's a local boy and he really dug his teeth in and put up a really good fight."