The Coonamble Bears have booked themselves another home-ground grand final with a win over the Royal Hotel Warren Bulldogs in the major semi-final played at Coonamble on Sunday.

Played out in front of a large and vocal crowd the thrilling encounter went down to the wire before the Bears emerged narrow winners 34 to 32. However the Bulldogs certainly indicated that the competition is far from over when they scored seven tries to six and could have quite easily walked away with a victory.

The Bears started the game throwing the ball around in fine style and were soon rewarded with a Brad Pickering try after a dashing backline movement down the right flank. The visitors then produced a brilliant try themselves when winger Ryan Williams spectacularly fielded a wide kick and somehow managed to tiptoe down the sideline before passing back inside to the fullback for a try out wide. The conversion hit the upright, a fact that may have been crucial to the final result.

The game fired up with each team losing a player to the sin bin in the 19th minute. Play see-sawed from end to end and at half time while the try tally was even at three apiece the scoreboard read 18 to 12 in favour of Coonamble.

A 20-minute delay due to an injury to Warren’s Dean Miller punctuated the early stages of the second half and immediately after play resumed Coonamble’s Steve Canham scored an easy try from close range against a defence that had not clocked back on to make the score 24 to 12.

Three tries in nine minutes, one of them converted, incredibly saw the Bulldogs take the lead 26 to 24 in the 18th minute, but the Bears were not about to lie down and they responded with two tries to get back in front 34 to 26. A converted try to the Bulldogs captain Matt Hall in the 35th minute set up a grandstand finish but the Bears were able to hold on for a thrilling win.

Best for the Bulldogs was prop Rob Walker closely followed by winger Luke Gibson and hooker Adam Pascoe.