An under-manned Orange City forced a patchy Cowra outfit to pull out all the stops to earn a 31-27, bonus-point victory at Pride Park, their first win after three straight losses.
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The hosts bolted out of the gate to lead 10-nil early and while Cowra barged their way back into the clash to lead 21-17 at half-time, the gutsy Lions swung momentum back in their favour to edge back in front by a point with 20 minutes to go.
They looked a genuine shout to cause a monumental upset and had a chance to in the dying stages as well, even after a converted Joe Dakuitoga try in the 67th minute gave the Eagles a four-point buffer.
But it wasn't quite to be.
If we had've laid down, I think they would have come right over the top of us.
- Cowra skipper Tim Berry, paying Orange City due credit
Orange City had possession with a minute left on the clock, were in Cowra's half and piling on the pressure, but a loose pass allowed the Eagles to grab the ball, earn a penalty and seal the win.
"It was hard. Both sides really wanted to win. We wanted it for different reasons, probably, to City. They gave it to us for the whole 80 and we had to dig deep," Cowra captain Tim Berry said.
"(But) we'll take a win, take a bonus point win which is always good coming here. It's not the nicest place with the breeze always coming over the hill today. It's always tough.
"The last 20 minutes there was a lot more communication, a lot more determination in getting up off the line and making those tackles, which made it a lot harder for City towards the end.
"If we had've laid down, I think they would have come right over the top of us."
While both sides were afflicted by the breeze, Berry observed that his side didn't take advantage of it as much as they could could have.
"We had the breeze in the first half but probably didn't utilise it as much as we should have and we knew the second half was going to be tough," Berry explained.
"They utilised it quite well in their second half. We just had to try and stick to our plan and lucky enough we got away with the win."
Meanwhile, Paasi said, as he has so many times this season, that his side impressed him, especially considering their jam-packed casualty ward, to which hooker Nick Fisher was added on Saturday afternoon.
"We've got a young squad and we've lost a lot of experience and big-game players and these guys are still stepping up and really representing the club really well," he noted.
- COWRA EAGLES 31 (Sailasa Taukei, Kaliova Nicina, Ratu Rotaiova, Alivate Karalo, Joe Dakuitoga tries; Garrizo Gonzalo 3 conversions) def ORANGE CITY LIONS 27 (Duncan Young, Ben Dennis, AJ McNiven, Sam Hoare tries; Keegan Harding 2 conversions, penalty goal)
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