The winger was at his best on Saturday as he scored both of the Magpies tries in their 22-21 victory over the Armidale Blues.

The first was what Burke called a “do or die” effort.

Defending his own line with his Magpies teammates, Cross made a split second decision, as the Blues swung the ball wide, to go for an intercept.

“They were going to score or we were going to score,” Burke said.

It paid off as Cross intercepted the pill and went 100 metres to score.

The second try came after Cross beat his man one-on-one from a blindside scrum play.

They were just two instances that impressed Burke in a big game from the winger.

“Dylan brings that X-factor to your team. He has the ability to turn a game on its head,” Burke said.

“The evidence to that was yesterday’s performance.

“Everybody wants someone with his game-changing ability and yesterday he picked up a couple points for his efforts.”

Despite the win, Tamworth’s season is over after Albies beat Barbarians to claim fourth on the ladder.

Burke said the win was bittersweet but it also showed how far the side had come.

“It was a great performance, especially due to the fact, not much in our game plan actually came together,” he said.

“They showed they can adapt and work well together.

“I suppose the area of the game that I thought we dominated in was the tackle. They’d made a commitment to do that prior to the game. It helped us win enough possession to get enough points to win the game.”