Central Coast Rugby Union: Warnervale Wildcats defeat Avoca Beach in crucial finals shootout

One side has given its chances of playing finals footy a huge boost after prevailing in a high-scoring thriller in the CCRU. Hear from the club with one foot in the post-season door.

Warnervale has jumped up into fourth place after a crucial victory in the CCRU. Picture: supplied

Warnervale has landed a huge blow in its quest to play finals football, outgunning fellow hopeful Avoca Beach 46-38 in a high-scoring thriller at Heazlett Park.

In what was a clash between fourth versus fifth, the boot of the Wildcats’ Ben Gillies ultimately proved to be the difference, with the five-eighth slotting five conversions and two penalty goals to separate the teams after they ran in six tries apiece.

“It was good from an attacking point of view,” said Warnervale coach Mat Piukala. “We’ve still got things we need to work on, I feel we could have done better in defence to try and hold them off a bit more so it wasn’t quite as close as what it was.

“But they did well to get back into it and we really had to dig deep in the last 10 minutes just to keep them out.”

Indeed, the game featured some wild swings in momentum as Warnervale raced out to a 20-point lead early on before being forced to hold off a stirring comeback from the Sharks late in the second half.

“I think we maybe let it get to our heads a little bit and they started climbing back,” said Piukala.

“They stayed in the game and we lost form a little bit but we managed to tighten it up a little bit. It was a good performance but there’s still plenty that we need to work on.”

And while his team got the job done, there were plenty of nerves in the final stages as Piukala watched on from the sidelines.

“The heart was definitely racing,” he said. “But I knew the boys would dig deep. We’ve done it before and I knew we could do it if we stayed locked in and focused on the task. It could have gone either way but I was really happy that the boys could pull it off.”

After the Wildcats started the weekend one point behind Avoca in fifth place, the result was hugely important in the context of the finals race.

With the win, they have now leapfrogged the Sharks and sit three points ahead of their rivals with just two regular-season games remaining.

Warnervale takes on last-placed Gosford-Kariong this weekend before facing off with Avoca in what could be a winner-takes-all finals shootout in the rescheduled final game of the season.

“It was definitely crucial,” said Piukala. “We knew that we had Avoca twice in the final rounds with the washout game and we know that we need to beat them twice to make sure that we make the semi-finals. The boys knew we needed this one and this showed in how they played.”

In other first grades fixtures, Terrigal maintained its spot at the top after defeating Lake Macquarie 42-25. The Trojans had to withstand some early pressure from the third-placed Roos before pulling away for the team’s 12th win from as many games this season.

Northlakes/The Bay celebrated just its second win of the year and in the process condemned Gosford-Kariong to the wooden spoon after a 39-22 victory, while Ourimbah solidified its spot in second and dealt a huge blow to Woy Woy’s hopes of playing finals footy after triumphing 55-22.

Standings: Terrigal 58, Ourimbah 52, Lake Macquarie 42, Warnervale 32, Avoca Beach 29, Woy Woy 25, Northlakes/The Bay 14, Gosford-Kariong 0