The Bushpigs travelled to Canberra to take on Gungahlin this weekend.
With a chunk of missing players, coach Matt Caldwell was still finalising the team with just minutes before kickoff.
Captain Liam Pepper (Jindabyne Butchery) lead the young team onto the pitch.
The team started well with some barnstorming runs from Brad Sanders (Small Brothers Plumbing) and Ian Vagg (Maddison York Chartered Accountants), with Jordan Lewis (Alpine Law) and Jack Tree (Alpine Glass & Screens) also putting their bodies on the line with some hard defence.
The hard work paid off when Matthew Caldwell (Ray White Real Estate) got a good bounce off a Gungahlin mistake, collecting the ball to run 30m to score under the posts.
A few scrappy errors from the Pigs let Gungahlin back into the game. The boys managed to put a few phases together and worked their way back up the field. The forwards gave halfback Rohan Kennedy (Marshall Batteries) some clean ball and allowed the backs with some good hands to spread the ball wide for Jared Pipi Cummins (Rob Kneller Foundation) to score in the corner.
The second half started and fatigue was starting to show, but the boys were still digging deep but with Gungahlin finding the Bushpigs try line twice bringing the score to 10-12 to Gungahlin.
With Gungahlin slowing down the Bushpigs found their way down into the other half with a few penalties. Some quick runs helped Liam Pepper (Jindabyne Butchery) crash over for a try, with Matthew Caldwell (Ray White Real Estate) kicking the conversion to put the Bushpigs in front by 5.
However, Gungahlin came straight back from the kick off, and with the Bushpigs on their heels and defending for the last 15 minutes Gungahlin busted through to score in extra time, kicking the goal to win by 2.
Final score: Gungahlin 19 defeated Jindabyne 17
Next week: no match (Easter)
Next match: Round 4: Taralga vs Jindabyne at Taralga
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View the Bushpigs draw and results here.
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