A hat-trick of tries to Cowra centre Aiden Craig helped the Magpies to a 56-30 win over Orange Hawks in round 12 of the Group 10 competition at Sid Kallas Oval yesterday.
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The Magpies ran in five tries in each half of the contest but lost the second half 30-28, after going in at the break 28-0 up.
The Two Blues came out firing and sparked a comeback scoring four unanswered tries in the space of 15 minutes reducing the deficit to six points.
The fourth was a sensational solo effort from winger Jordan Baker who received the restart and bolted 80 metres brushing off multiple defenders and completely silencing the home crowd, scoring in front of the fans in the left corner.
An error in their next set though cost Hawks hugely as Craig grabbed his third and the momentum sharply swapped back to the Black and Whites.
Cowra piled on a further 22-points in the final 20 minutes, two to Ricky Whitton and one each to Tyrone Eastwood and Jack Nobes.
Jedd Kennedy and Baker scored late in the match but they were nothing but consolations as the Magpies returned to the winners circle with a handy 26-point win.
Cowra coach Steve Sutton was glad his side scored the two competition points but said the second half was disappointing.
“The two points is the best thing to come out of it pretty much,” Sutton said.
“Winning by 26-points is good for our for-and-against but there’s no way we should be allowing 30-points scored against us, that’s not good enough, in certain aspects it feels like a loss.
“We had some good individual performances out there, really happy with the first 40 [minutes], disappointed with the second 40 [minutes],” he said.
Despite losing the match, Hawks briefly produced some of the most exciting football seen this season but captain-coach Jared Brodrick highlighted his side’s defence as the problem.
“It was good everyone was positive [after half-time] but our defence was too soft today,” Brodrick said.
“We made it hard for ourselves with that first half. We had a dig in the start of the second but we leaked 56-points, that’s nowhere near good enough.
“We get a few of the boys back after the bye. We’ll have a rest, there’s still a chance we can sneak in [to the finals] but it’s going to be really hard in the next few weeks,” he said.
Cowra’s focus now turns to the local derby this Saturday against Blayney and Sutton’s hopeful of another win.
“It’ll be tough, we got to get up and get a win. If we do that it’ll put us in good stead and hopefully we’ll build some momentum,” he said.
Cowra 56 (Aiden Craig 3, Codey Brooks 2, Ricky Whitton 2, Jack Nobes, Toby Nobes, Tyrone Eastwood tries; Toi Sepuloni 2, Caley Mak 6 conversions) defeated Orange Hawks 30 (Jedd Kennedy 2, Jordan Baker 2, Cody Robbins, Jared Brodrick; Mitch Hurford 3 conversions).