Mathew O'Neill's Woodbridge Cup debut against Blayney Bears is best summed up by the man himself - "absolutely crazy".
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The Orange United Warriors centre scored two tries and had an after the siren shot to win the game with the scores locked at 30-all following a Will Lucas try at the death.
With a barrage of 'advice' from the Bears faithful ringing in his ears, he stepped up and pushed his kick wide as the sides shared the points.
It was and end-to-end affair with the Warriors racing out to a 10-0 lead before Blayney got a roll on, only for the visitors to strike with two late tries.
Moments after his tricky conversion attempt, O'Neill was full of praise for his side's character.
"Absolutely crazy," he said.
"Full credit to Blayney of course to have the lead but even more credit to us boys, we stayed in the fight.
"I'm used to it [the heckling].
"I kicked goals before I retired but I don't know about that kick. That was a bit wayward."
Back and forth
Orange got off to the perfect start, splinting the Blayney defence open twice in quick succession.
A couple of penalties gave the Bears some decent field position however and despite looking well off the pace, the home side soon found themselves level courtesy of dummy half efforts from Jack Thorncraft and Ben Pettit.
Max Ryan made it 16-10 to the Bears on the stroke of half-time and then 18-10 thanks to a penalty goal.
Things went from bad to worse for the Warriors with Will Lucas being sent to the sin bin for a shoulder charge.
Two tackles later they gave away another penalty for a swinging arm and moments after Bears halfback Will Cramp stepped through some tired defenders to score.
O'Neill then scored his first to reduce the gap to 22-16 and then xxxxx reached out to plant the ball down to make it a two-point game.
The Bears lost Nathan Neuenhaus for 10 minutes after an infringement on his own but made the most of an unforced Warriors mistake to further stretch the margin and seemingly put the game beyond doubt only for O'Neill to nab his second with five minutes to go.
Lucas then punctured the Bears defence with 40 seconds on the clock and make it 30-all.
O'Neill said they had to dig themselves out of a hole with 12 men.
"We kept pushing, worked hard, made it hard for ourselves, but worked hard to finally come back.
"When he got sent the word was to play tough. Not take that backward step but then also play smart on the back of it."
The former Wagga Brothers player made the switch to the Warriors due to brother Willie Wright taking on the coaching duties.
The centre said he was looking forward to sharing the field for the first time but admitted he would need some time to recover.
"The body is feeling it.
"I'll feel it tomorrow.
"He asked us for me to come back and haven't had a year with him, so it was good.
"It was good to come back and have that year with him."
