Playing at home on Sunday in front of a large crowd of supporters the Clarence Town Cobras staged not one but two amazing comebacks to snatch a remarkable victory in the last minute of the game.
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To add to the excitement it took an ice cool conversion after fulltime from hooker Phil Badior to seal the win.
The Cobras were keen to establish a good showing against Gloucester as it was considered they could be the benchmark of the competition.
It took just 15 minutes of the match for the Magpies to prove that the theory had plenty of substance to it as they ran in three consecutive tries from that period to establish 18-0 after 30 minutes of the first half.
It wasn’t until Alfred Whaleboat burst through the defence to beautifully draw the fullback and unload to Trappel backing up and race 30 metres to score under the posts and bring the deficit back to 18-6 in favour of the visitors.
No sooner had Claro put themselves back into the game that they surrendered possession close to their own line which in turn allowed Gloucester to post more points on the verge of halftime for them to go to the break with a commanding 22-6 lead.
The Cobras had paid the price for poor decisions and failing to wrap the ball up in defence during the opening 40 minutes.
Although Matt Hinton and Ben Bradley were getting though plenty of work and making inroads into the defence with each carry of the ball, it must be said that the Magpies had taken full advantage of any Claro error to put themselves in the position they were in.
With emphasis on being first to score after the break Claro couldn’t have started the half any worse. With just two minutes gone the Magpies fullback once again showed his class and speed to break through on halfway and race away to score under the post and stretch their lead an astounding 28-6.
It was right here in the match that the crowd witnessed a surge of stunning attack from the Cobras.
From the next regain of possession Trappel drifted across field to deliver a deft pass to Kieran Hinton making a welcome return to the team and running a beautiful line into a yawning gap to score next to the posts.
And it was Trappel who weaved his magic to dummy and slice through and add another converted try to bring the score to 28-18.
The Claro pack at this stage was almost unstoppable and when Whaleboat stormed on to a clever Badior pass from dummy half close to the line the Cobras had scored again to bring them within a try of Magpies at 24-28.
With all the momentum in their favour, Rob Elliott did what might have seemed impossible to burst through defenders and score to put Claro in front for the first time in the match. At just the 22nd minute mark the Cobras had staged a thrilling comeback to lead 30-28.
Gloucester was far from done with and on the back of clumsy errors and penalties from Claro they surrendered their grip on the game and the momentum again turned to the visitors. They again ran in two quick tries to regain what seemed a winning 40-30 lead with just seven minutes remaining.
To their credit the Cobras regrouped and the combination of Trappel and Hinton came to the for once again when Trappel turned Kieran inside for him to race over and score and give the Cobras a slight chance of a win with the scoreline now 40-36.
In an amazing finish to the match Claro surged downfield and on the back of powerful runs from the forwards and it was Matt Hinton who stood in a tackle and offloaded to Middleton backing up on the inside who miraculously darted over the try which levelled the score at 40-all with seconds left in the match.
It was then left to the boot of Badior to determine the outcome of a draw or a win for the locals.
Halfway to the sideline Badior slotted the ball straight over the black dot to give Clarro an astonishing 42-40 win.