KANGAROOS captain-coach Adam Halls believes the team’s development into a Group Nine premiership force was underlined by a thrilling 17-16 win over Temora at Equex Centre on Saturday.
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In a cliff-hanger finish, Hall booted a sensational 50-metre field goal in the dying minutes to get Roos home by a solitary point.
Hall’s massive strike from the centre of the ground broke a 16-all deadlock and cruelly robbed the Dragons from a share of the result.
As Temora captain-coach Michael Henderson rued a missed opportunity, Hall revelled in the coming of age of Kangaroos as a premiership contender.
“Twelve months ago we’d have lost that game,” Hall said. “That’s how far we’ve come.
“The young guys are 12 months older and 12 months more experienced.”
For Roos, the heartbreak of several tight near-misses in 2014 was wiped away by the slender victory over gallant Temora.
Although the Dragons scored four tries to Roos’ three tries, it was the Wagga team that managed to grind out the heart-stopping verdict.
And it all came down to the phenomenal boot of the skipper.
After missing with an earlier attempt, Hall found his mark, striking the second perfectly to watch the ball sail clearly over the cross-bar to nail Roos’ third straight win – and fourth for the year.
Hall was later loath to take credit for getting Roos across the line.
“This was a great team effort,” he said. “We had six players out ... and that’s including two (Hayden Brooks, Tyler Austin) we lost at training on Thursday night.
“Everyone had to dig really deep.”
Henderson also took heart from Temora’s performance in the close scrape.
“We’re improving,” Henderson said. “We completed well, but the 10 minutes before half-time was costly.”
The Dragons led 8-0 following tries to Gavin Kite (seventh minute) and Josh Bryant (20th) but Roos struck with tries in the 34th minute (Luke Olsson) and 39th (Zeik Foster) to seize an unlikely 10-8 lead at half-time.
However, Temora jumped ahead again in the 50th minute when halfback Scott Bowden scored a solo try from the scrumbase before rookie winger Jake Mills bagged another try 10 minutes later.
Up 16-10 after the Mills try, the Dragons were stung when Hall threw a long pass for Olsson to score his second try in the 66th minute to cut the deficit to 16-14.
Stepping up for the conversion from sideline, Hall was absolutely spot-on to level the game at 16-all.
While Hall’s kicking was a feature of the success, Bowden missed all four conversions.
