Big Kirwan finish just falls short Bears brave in finals loss
KIRWAN High coach Todd Wilson has praised his side’s character after almost pulling off a brilliant second half comeback in yesterday’s 32- 26 loss to Palm Beach Currumbin in the NRL Schoolboys Cup state final.
Kirwan winger Daniel Rigano scored a double as the Bears trailed by just two points in the final minute before Palm Beach Currumbin capitalised on a late mistake to win a thriller at Brisbane’s Langlands Park.
The Bears, who won the state title in 2015 on their way to winning the national championship, came out firing as the two sides traded blows before going into the break deadlocked at 12- 12.
A horror bounce from the kick- off allowed Palm Beach Currumbin to split the de- fence and score to start the second half before Kirwan burrowed over to get it back to 18- 16.
Back- to- back tries saw Palm Beach Currumbin’s lead blow out to 28- 16 with 10 minutes left to play before the Bears charged home with two quick tries of their own to make it a two- point game.
But there was to be no fairytale comeback for the Townsville side as they dropped the ball coming out of their own end and Palm Beach Currumbin players took advantage to score in the corner.
Wilson conceded it was a tough way to lose after feeling they were a genuine chance of winning the state final, but he felt it was still an excellent effort from his side to stay in the fight.
“They certainly showed plenty of character in doing that. They’re a quality opposition and we just couldn’t get there in the end,” the coach said.
“We’re really proud of them and they’re certainly proud of their effort, but it’s pretty tough too to know that we were that close.
“We were genuinely in the hunt to win it so that’s obviously hurting them, but we’ve sat down and had a talk about what they’ve learnt from it and what they can learn going forward from these kind of games.
“We’re certainly very proud of what they’ve done.”