Armidale Blues hit back after their first defeat of the New England Rugby season to Tamworth last weekend with a defiant six-point win against the Barbarians.
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While poor discipline saw the Blues concede points through penalty goals, their defence denied the Baa Baas the chance to cross the tryline.
At half-time the Blues led 15-9 before taking out the game 18-12.
“Defensively we were very patient,” Armidale Blues co-coach Luke Stephen said.
“While Baa Baas were able to generate pressure through our ill-discipline through penalties, they weren't able to cross the line and that was a big focus of the week, having conceded points against Tamworth.
“We were able to take advantage of a few opportunities in the first-half but I guess the second-half was just a real arm wrestle and we were able to hold on and keep them at bay.”
It was always expected to be a physical encounter and Stephen was impressed with his side’s ability to muscle up with 14 men on the park after a sin-binning.
“From our point of view a real positive of that was the fact we were able to hold them in the scrums when Nick Ogilvie was in the bin,” he said.
“To hold them in the scrums with seven players was a real testament to the players that were out there.”
It was a very different scenario to the first time the two sides clashed when the Blues piled on the points in the second-half to take a 41-18 win.
“We knew and the recent results showed they would improve dramatically and I think the game was more of a reflection of one, the eveness of the competition and two, the eveness of the teams,” Stephen said.
The other match saw an improved Tamworth side take on the second-placed Robb College at Bellevue.
The students rocketed out to a 24-8 lead at half-time.
“For 25 of the 40 minutes of the first half, they tried to clear out of their 22 and we counterattacked very well and maintained possession and kept pressure on them,” Robb co-coach Sam Ditchfield said.
“That pressure we turned into points.”
The start of the second-half saw the tables turned with Robb put under pressure by the visiting side.
A series of penalties saw Tamworth close the gap to 24-19.
“For the first 20 minutes of the second-half they had a lot of possession and we did a lot of defending,” Ditchfield said.
“Full credit to Tamworth, they came out and made their first-up tackles and were very good over the ball.
“I think we thought we were going to go out there and continue where we left off at half-time and ended up being in a defensive position and got frustrated with ourselves and gave the penalties away.”
Robb managed to hold on and post another five points to take a 29-19 win and deny Tamworth their second win of the season.
“It was a tough game of footy and both sides have improved since the first time we played each other,” Ditchfield said.