WHEN a finals game comes right down to a deciding play in the dying seconds it's going to leave one team elated while the other will feel an extra sense of dejection.
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Unfortunately for the CSU Mungals they found themselves in the latter camp following Sunday's Woodbridge Cup league tag semi-final away to minor premiers Condobolin Rams.
CSU thought they had levelled the scores right on the final siren with a try next to the uprights but were deemed to have made a pass after a player had been tagged.
That left the final score 24-20 in the Rams' favour, denying the eighth-placed Mungals what would have been a big upset win and a place in the preliminary finals.
Mungals skipper Grace Farmilo was looking to end her time at the club with a dream finals run, and said it was shame to see the season come to a close after a lot of promise.
"It was very, very sad, and I honestly thought we were the better team on the day. Our team was really promising but unfortunately we didn't quite play as well as we could have and it was so devastating," she said.
"We've been saying for ages that our team has the potential to beat anyone, which is why we were so disappointed to lose to Condo. We knew we were capable of winning the whole thing."
Ultimately it was a slow start that would cost the uni side.
They found themselves down 12-6 at half-time but began to claw their way back into the match.
Rams scored inside the last 10 minute to regain the lead after the Mungals' fightback, but the visitors mounted a late charge to get themselves in a great position to level the scores.
Then came the call that decided CSU's season.
"We scored right on the buzzer to win the game but it was awarded by two refs while the other called it a tag, so that was taken away from us on the horn," she said.
"That was so devastating. We had a pretty poor first half but that second half from us was way better."
Farmilo takes heart in knowing that a Mungals team that was composed of many new players was able to come together and make such a promising finals push.
"We had such a good team, considering all the new players that we had this year. It was still the best season ever.
"That's unfortunately my last year with the Mungoes. It was always going to be sad to play my last game, whether that was last week or in the next few weeks."
The teams would finish with four tries apiece, with the only difference on the scoreboard coming from conversions.
Condobolin moves on to face the Manildra Rhinos while Cargo will take on Molong in the other preliminary final.
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