The upset of the season looked on the cards when the Lions led with about five minutes remaining. But the Bulls managed to drag themselves out of the mire, Adams scoring on the bell to secure a lucky escape 29-27.

Bulls coach Damien Kelly paid credit to the Lions and conceded his side probably didn't deserve the points.

"Quirindi played well," he said.

"They showed a lot of spirit and they've obviously improved a lot."

Lions coach Col McKenzie couldn't have been prouder or happier with his sides effort.

"We really could have won it," he said.

"We were right in it right to the end."

They were up 24-22 at one stage, having fought back to tie up the game at 19-all early in the second half.

Having suffered plenty of hidings from the Bulls in recent years, the players, while gutted, where understandably also really happy with their performance.

"We've taken a huge leap of faith out of it," McKenzie said.

"I'm just excited for them. The work we've been doing at training is starting to come through."

And they're having fun, which for McKenzie is the most important thing.

"I think allround we just muscled up and were better across the whole team in defence," he said.

"And the forwards really played well. They really dug in and played 80 minutes of hard rugby. They took it up hard and defended well."

The biggest difference was they didn't fall off tackles, something they have been notorious for and really hurt them in the opening round against Pirates.

"The boys are getting better and better every week," McKenzie said.

He paid a lot of credit to the young players in the backline.

"The outside backs were outstanding," he said.

The backs scored all of the Lions points with Jake Murray, Angus McKenzie, James Clift and Ben Grant all finding the tryline.

Shifting to fullback the latter had a fantastic game and was for the second time in three games adjudged the Lions' players player.