Late flashes of brilliance denied the Candelo-Bemboka Panthers a win against the Bombala Blue Heelers on Saturday.
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Under lights at the Pambula Sporting Complex, the Panthers had been up 10-6 leading into the second half of their reserve grade clash with the Bombala visitors.
The Panthers had found some good options on the right edge, but the Blue Heelers began spreading their big men across the field and play came to a stalemate for almost 20 minutes of the second half.
However, an 80-metre line break sparked the Blue Heelers' attack with new Fijian members showing their worth on the Heelers' right-flank.
The visiting centre made the burst from Bombala's defensive 20 before pelting up the field to score next to the posts.
It then spurred on the visitors, who found some cheeky offloads to let the runners loose a further two times to win 22-10.
The Panthers had been looking the goods to win the game until that final 10 minutes.
Heywood Fraser had some solid runs, while Bombala worked hard with their own forward pack to control the ruck.
It was a disappointing finish for the Panthers, but it had been a wonderfully contested game with some bone-crunching tackles.
Earlier, the Candelo-Bemboka Pink Panthers had been comfortably routed by the Bombala High Heelers.
The visitors claimed a 40-0 win as the home team suffered some horror sets with dropped balls making for costly handovers.