WHILE two pieces of Annie Craig brilliance carried St Pat's White into extra-time in Sunday's Group 10 Junior Rugby League open league tag semi-final, in the end it was Orange CYMS who found the golden points for a 26-22 win.
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The scores were locked at 22-all at the end of regulation time at Jack Arrow Oval and momentum looked to be on the side of the Saints as they had dominated the final quarter.
While they went into that fourth quarter trailing 22-10, Craig had hauled her Saints back into contention with a pair of long range tries.
But unfortunately for the Saints, it was CYMS who had the last say as they crossed for match winner after three minutes of additional time.
"They just didn't play their best, but they played football for 15 minutes in that last quarter, they were down by 12 and came back. It was just costly errors in the end," Pat's coach Chris Osborne said.
"We scored two tries in the last five minutes to square it up, Maisie Bostjancic kicked a goal after full-time to square it up.
"Annie Craig, she scored both. She scored off a 50 metre intercept and then she scored another 50 metre try."
Pat's had beaten Orange CYMS 30-20 earlier in the season and were hoping for a repeat of that win on Sunday in order to book a grand final spot.
CYMS enjoyed the better of the first quarter to take a 6-0 lead and while the Orange side was still in front at half-time, the Saints had clawed back their advantage to two points at 12-10.
Ten unanswered points in the third quarter put CYMS in control, but the Saints continued to fight and Craig's brace had it all locked up at 22-all.
Though the Saints could not not find the match-winner and for some players it marked their last game in juniors, Osborne hopes they will return as under 18s next season.
"It was a bit disappointing to go out like that, especially because a couple of girls it was their final year in junior league," he said. "There were just a couple of mistakes which cost us, I just wish they realised how good they could be. They are a good bunch of girls and hopefully they'll go into the senior ranks."
Meanwhile the under 11 Saints booked their spot in the tag grand final with a 30-18 win over Orange CYMS Gold.
