The start of the Group 19 rugby league season saw some tight contests but none moreso than the Inverell Hawks and Walcha Roos men's fixture.
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The Hawks and Roos split the points after finishing with a 22-all draw.
For the Hawks, they were happy to come away with a point after a woeful start to the match.
Walcha posted 14 points before the Inverell side fired a shot.
Hawks president and player Ethan Anderson bemoaned their early efforts.
"We had a terrible start," he said.
"I said to the boys at half-time 'we are lucky to be only eight points down, the way we played.'
"I think we completed two sets the whole first-half.
"Three kick for touches that didn't go out, three tries that were called back for forward passes.
"It was just shocking."
But they fought their way back into the match to post 22 unanswered points before Walcha pinned it back again for the final result.
Although their start was bad, Anderson said they were content with how they fixed things up in the second stanza.
"There are a lot of new blokes there that have never played footy together," he said.
"We counted on the weekend, there was only about five of us that played in the grand final last year."
It was a different scenario in the league tag game.
Sophie Greentree starred with four tries in the 22-6 win over the Jillaroos.
"The girls started unreal," Anderson said.
"They have been training hard, they have had a better pre-season than us men and it showed.
"They were 14-nil up after about 15 minutes. They went out there all guns firing."
The Hawks will head to Glen Innes this Saturday to take on the Magpies.
It will be a full day of rugby league with minor league games earlier in the day.
In the other senior fixtures at the weekend, the men's competition saw the Armidale Rams beat the Moree Boomerangs 30-28 and the Warialda Wombats defeat the Tingha Tigers 28-22.
In league tag, the 'Rangs beat the Rams 24-8, Bingara defeated Glen Innes 16-4 and Tingha beat Warialda 38-nil.