The two sides were earmarked as front runners in the pre-season, although losses to the still unbeaten Dungowan and Uralla in the opening rounds had the Creek on the back foot before a good win over premiers Kootingal last week was backed up with a tough win over the Roos at David Taylor Park on Saturday.

Werris Creek wrecking ball Zac Darcy opened the scoring early on the back of a holding penalty on halfway, although five minutes later, after showing some stiff defence on their line, Boggy hit straight back with the first of two tries for centre Blake McIlveen.

With the conversion hitting the post, Boggy still trailed by two, although when Creek returned the favour, giving away their own holding penalty, Roos back rower Andrew Cameron made good use of the repeat set, crashing over at the 17-minute mark.

Both sides then put their heads down and arm-wrestled from end to end with good completion rates from both sides, as well as showing some good scramble on their own lines.

Creek centre Nathaniel Slater dashed over from a great Darcy offload before McIlveen hit back right on halftime after Jayde Campbell jumped on a loose ball and set the flyer up from halfway for Boggabri to go into the sheds up 14-12.

The visitors started the second half on top, with Creek getting marched backwards with successive penalties in their own half although, after being unable to break through, a third penalty was given in front and, in a nod to the Magpies’ defence, the Roos opted to take the two points on offer to go ahead 16-12.

They might have regretted that decision shortly after when Darcy refused to be dragged down, throwing defenders off and marching forward before skipper Brendan Hunt dived over from dummy half to take the lead off the Roos.

The Roos went on the attack again, and again the Magpies were penalised on their own line but when five-eighth Robert Briggs threw a long ball to the heavily overlapped left side, Magpies fullback Marty Shaw intercepted and raced the full length of the field to score under the posts.

After that, the game was all Magpies, Cody Tickle splitting the defence shortly after before Brody Orr crossed a few minutes later to wrap the game up 34-16. 

“That intercept changed the game,” Bowne said. 

“We turned the ball over a bit too much in the second half but are starting to do the little things right.

“Once we got some direction going we played some good footy.” 

Creek have now got a game against the winless Bundarra, before the bye followed by a bye weekend, making this win all the more important.

“That is almost three weeks without any footy after Bundarra,” Bowne said.

“We knew we couldn’t afford to lose the game.”

In the other Shield matches, Dungowan had a good win over old rivals Kootingal, while Wee Waa took their first Second Division scalp against Bundarra.

Boggabri have a bye next week before they welcome Wee Waa to town on June 4.