The Narooma Devils’ winning streak is over after a late comeback fell two points short against the Cooma Stallions on Sunday.
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The Devils had a golden chance to jump into the top-four, but struggled against a big Cooma side.
Narooma started the brighter side, as Yuin Campbell scored in the first two minutes from a Ryan Norris kick.
The Stallions allowed the kick to bounce, and Campbell was there to claim the loose ball and score the try.
A bad start became worse for the visiting Stallions when Adam Walters was sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate trip.
Any advantage the Devils may have gained was quickly thrown away however, as a broken-play on the right side led to Stallions’ winger Joshua Russell racing away for a 90-metre try.
Jesse Piekar converted to tie the scores at six.
Joseph Scrymgeour steadied the ship not long after for the Devils, but tries to Blayne Thomas and Liam Rankin gave the visitors a 16-12 lead at halftime.
The Stallions came out stronger in the second half, and it wasn’t long before Liam Rankin was in for his second try of the day.
Luke Bracher found Rankin with a cut-out ball on the left edge, and the youngster did the rest to give the Stallions an eight-point lead.
Scrymgeour would pop his head up again for the Devils, this time with a deft kick from dummy half. Stallions’ fullback Damien Hayden couldn’t come up with the bouncing ball, giving Neil Graham an opportunity to score under the posts.
Ryan Norris converted the try to bring the Devils back to within two points.
It wasn’t to be for Narooma however, as Richard Bensley-Reid got over the line for the sealing try.
Ali Elmasri would score one final try for the Devils, but the clock wasn’t on their side as they lost 26-24.
Devils captain Todd Ayers lamented his side’s performance, saying they didn’t do the basics well enough to win.
“We were just flat,” he said. “When other teams are completing, we don’t seem to be able to complete with them.
“We’ve got to be able to match it in the arm wrestle, and we didn’t do that today.”
Ayers said the fix for a poor performance was a tough session on the training ground.
“We’ve been making a few too many excuses recently,” he said. “We’re not training hard enough, but we’ve got to correct that and get back to what we were.”
“We just need to turn up to play, and complete. If we do that we can beat anyone, we just didn’t do that today.”
In other results, the Ladies League Tag side continued their strong run of form with a 10-8 victory over the Cooma Fillies.
Kira Campbell was once again outstanding, while Leena Campbell and Nerida Ladmore both had great games.
The highlight was Sarah Alderton’s match-winning try, her first ever in the competition. Lily-Rose Bennett’s boot proved the difference in a match where both teams scored two tries.
The under 18’s continued their strong season with a 54-20 victory over Cooma. Clyde Parsons was man-of-the-match with four tries and six goals for a personal haul of 28 points.
The reserves found the pace of the Stallions hard to handle, going down 40-10. Jack Godfrey, Milo Campbell, Clyde Campbell, Dane Terare, and Dillon Smith were Narooma’s best.