A try on the final siren to Zander Williment has given CSU a spectacular 10-6 win over Forbes in Central West Rugby Union at Diggings Oval on Saturday.
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The home side trailed 6-0 with less than 10 minutes to play, but scored two late tries to clinch the dramatic win and keep the pressure on the top teams.
Charlie Nordfeldt scored the first try for the students on the extreme left hand touch line and Sam Cote had an opportunity to win the game with the conversion but his attempt from the difficult angle went wide and led to an exciting final few minutes.
It looked like CSU were going to run out of time until they began to throw the ball wide in their own half in what was going to be their final turn with the ball.
They found space and the first reaction of the Forbes winger was to throw out an arm and collar his man. It saw him yellow carded and gave CSU a piggyback up the field.
With the extra man they simply spread the ball wide and it was Williment who was able to find the gap and run 20 metres for the match-winning try on the right hand touch line.
CSU coach Morgan Grivas was happy his team were able to steal the win and said playing for the full 80 minutes was something his side had talked about early in the year.
“We talked at training about making sure when the games are tight we stay in it and as long as we are in possession at the 80th minute we will back ourselves to win it and its come good today,” he said.
“It was probably luck as much as anything to score after the bell like that, going length of the field but the guys were certainly committed to getting a result and it has come together for them.”
Early in the match there hadn’t been much joy for the students. They had an early shot at penalty goal but missed and Forbes also sent a penalty attempt wide.
However, they earned one more before the break and Tim Anderson was successful, giving his side a 3-0 lead at half-time.
Anderson increased that lead to six early in the second period with another penalty goal.
With both teams struggling to hold onto the ball it was looking like that would be the final score until CSU dug deep and began their fightback.
Grivas said at half-time his team talked about holding onto possession better to give themselves more of a chance and while they didn’t do it for the whole half, their final 10 minutes were enough to get them home.
“We knew we had to make better use of our opportunities ... because when we had the ball in the first half we really spoilt it and hardly strung together a phase – whereas Forbes really did that well,” the coach said.
Grivas said Dom Longhurst and Williment were two of the standouts in the win.
“Dom Longhurst at halfback had an excellent game, he drove forward well. Zander scoring a try like that at the end, you have to tip your hat and he stole some crucial line out ball.
Matt Coote was forced from the field during the game with an ankle injury.
CSU 10 (Charlie Nordfeldt, Zander Williment tries) defeated FORBES PLATYPI 6 (Tim Anderson 2 penalty goals).