It was wet and wild but the Wellington Cowboys did enough to hold and claim a 20-18 win over Dubbo CYMS on Sunday.
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The two clubs met at Kennard Park, a venue which was torn to shreds by the end of the match as the Cowboys showed great skill in the wet.
Wellington's middle forwards were brilliant as was Jai Merritt who helped create two tries from kicks for the Cowboys.
"It was good to finally get a win over them, it's only the second time I've ever beat them in first grade," he said.
Wellington made a handful of late changes to their side for the match, with Blake Ferguson missing while Tyrone Tattersall returned at fullback.
But it was the visitors who got things started on Sunday with Jeremy Thurston sliding over for a try early to open the scoring.
Wellington centre Brock Naden found himself running through a hole on the right edge shortly after to level the scores at 4-all before Dubbo CYMS hit back.
A converted try to Jyie Chapman gave the Fishies back the momentum as the intensity lifted with the crowd getting vocal for both sides.
Seaun Stanley Jr was the next man to score as Wellington got themselves back into the game on the stroke of half-time with Rylee Blackhall converting to tie the score up at 10-all.
Coming out of halftime, Merritt put a neat grubber in for his skipper Justin Toomey-White as the back-rower scored his first try of the afternoon.
Just a CYMS started to look dangerous, a late hit on Blackhall allowed the Cowboys easy passage downfield which they made the most of.
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Merritt and Toomey-White combined again for an almost instant replay as Wellington went up 20-10.
After putting down a few bombs during the match, Troyden Dixon moved out to the wing and scored a try of his own to give the Fishies a chance of a win.
It was the CYMS left edge again not too long after with Billy Sing scoring to move the score along to 20-18.
Thurston's wide conversion attempt miss gave the visitors three minutes to pull off a win but Wellington's middles managed to force a mistake in the dying seconds to seal the win.
All match Wellington's forwards kept turning up and Merritt singled one man out in particular.
"Hats off to big Daniel Pracy, he killed it all day for us," he said.
"He ran hard, tackled hard and whenever he was tired he kept putting his hand up."
The win for the Cowboys keeps them in third spot and puts Wellington even closer to a spot in the finals, with the potential of a home final on the cards as well.
For Merritt, he was vocal all match and wasn't afraid to sledge the opposition either.
"I just try to get the boys going and keep the energy high," he said.
"I just had to bring something back, I was out for a month and we lost a few away games.
"But we are back at home now which is good, hopefully, we can go over to Forbes next week and get the job done."
Dubbo CYMS coach Shawn Townsend conceded his side was outplayed at times but felt they still missed a few chances, especially towards the end of the match.
"They played good, I don't think they dropped the ball at all," he said.
"Their kicking game was good, we couldn't get any pressure on Rylee (Blackhall) or Jai (Merritt).
"We couldn't get any penalties or a repeat set to allow us to put pressure back on them."
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