The Whitsunday Sportspark played host to the MRU Semi- finals on Saturday which saw Kuttabul take on Cities followed by Whitsunday Raiders taking on Moranbah bulls.
The clash between the Raiders and the Bulls was to determine who went straight through to the grand final on the 12th.
The Raiders had an unusual training week due to the rain but were quietly confident they could come away with the win.
The game was going to be an arm wrestle for both sides and only a minute into it the bulls came up with a penalty to put first points on the board.
The Raiders could not seem to get their hands on the ball for most of the game but when they did, they looked good throwing it around, the scrums were strong and both sides found it hard to push over the ball.
With the wind behind them Moranbah took a further lead with a converted a try after 15 minutes.
It wasn’t until around the 30 minute mark that the men in green scored their own converted try to make it 7-10.
The score was to remain that way until around the 60 minute mark when the Bulls converted another penalty to take it to 7-13, not long after Niall Clancy converted a Raiders penalty to make it 10 -13.
The Raiders had momentum close to the Bulls line, with 5 mins to go, when the game was halted due to a major injury.
The crowd were on the edge of their seats after the restart, when speedster Rhys Ward chased a grubber kick over the line, unfortunately it was judged to have gone out and the Raiders would have to take on the Kuttabul Camelboks at home next Saturday to move into the Grand Final, going down 10-16.
Contributed with thanks to Craig Spence.
Connor Spence putting on a big defensive tackle. Supported by Waikato Nepia-Katipa, Peni Tuibre and Brayden Holloway. Photo credit: Hanny Spence Photography
