BOWRAL head into Sunday’s sudden death minor preliminary semi-final against Uni bristling with confidence, after they finished the season with their best performance of the year.

The Blacks only needed to avoid losing to Shoalhaven by less than seven points to assure themselves the last finals spot but Bowral robbed Shoalhaven of a shot at the minor premiership with a shock 17-15 upset win at Eridge on Saturday.

Bowral’s three tries-to-one triumph sees them leapfrog Uni into fourth spot, and the Blacks will embark on their first first grade finals campaign in five years.

Blacks skipper Chris Creber said it was a great win.

“It was the best win of the season and one of the best I have been involved in.” he said.

“Uni beat us last time but there is no team we can’t beat. It was an intense game and everyone stood out.”

The visitors lead 5-0 at the break and 8-0 soon afterwards through a try to Lindsey Higgins and a penalty goal.

John Dobson hit back for Bowral before Ryan Lonsdale showed his class with a great line break to send Creber over midway through the term and give Bowral a 12-8 lead.

Lonsdale was again in the thick of the action soon afterwards, picking up a Shoalies knock on to race 50 metres before passing to winger Lief King, who inturn fed the ball back to English import James Hogg to dive over and extend the lead to 17-8.

Bowral withstood a mountain of pressure late in the game and Shoalhaven’s Lief Cooper crossed with two minutes to go to make it 17-15, but it was too little too late.

Bowral held on in the dying minute to hand Shoalhaven their second loss in as many weeks.

For the full story see the Southern Highland News, Monday, September 1

sport.highlandnews@ruralpress.com