Group Nine
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SOME Michael Henderson magic in the dying stages of Sunday's Group Nine clash pushed the Dragons over the line against competition battler Junee.
It was an old-fashioned grind on a wet and muddy Nixon Park, and both teams struggled to impact the scoreboard early on.
It wasn't until the 60th minute that powerful Junee centre Moses Manu opened his account to give the Diesels a 6-0 lead.
Temora hit back through Matt Hughes soon after, and Diesels were immediately left a man down when big prop Patrick Sagigi was sin binned by referee Jake White.
The score was 6-4 and the Diesels looked like taking home the two competition points.
Temora hooker Gavin Kite put a grubber through and the Dragons scored, but the ball was called back after brushing the referee on the way through.
With a minute on the clock and only half a set left to score, Henderson got the ball, ran it, dummied and offloaded to winger Brandon Robinson who dived over in the corner.
The try went unconverted but it was just enough to hand Temora a thrilling 8-6 victory.
Henderson was thrilled to get the chocolates.
"It was a good win, it was a tough game," Henderson said.
"They really came to play and defended well.
"The first half nobody really looked like scoring, but in the second half we were able to create some pressure and had about four repeat sets.
"Junee had four or five guys backing up from reserves so I think fatigue played a part in the end.
"It was just good old-fashioned footy; they played smart, ran the ball and kicked long and we did the same.
"You couldn't see the numbers on the jerseys (because) it was that muddy."
Henderson and fellow front rower Scott Matthews were damaging as ever, while Kite and halfback Chris Wallace continued their strong form for the Dragons.
Temora now has a week off before taking on Brothers in a fortnight to finish the Group Nine season.
Meantime, Tumbarumba pulled off a seven-point win over the struggling Tumut at Twickenham.
The Blues were up 12-10 at half time until the Greens ran in four second-half tries, and fullback Kane Hammond kicked a late field goal to seal the 29-22 victory.
