They snuck into finals and now the Albury-Wodonga Steamers have come through another thriller to keep their season alive.
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A strong defensive effort has helped the Steamers go through to the preliminary final after a 17-14 win over Griffith at Conolly Rugby Complex on Saturday.
The Steamers led 10-0 at half-time, and then 17-7 15 minutes into the second half, before they sustained a rally from the Blacks.
Twice David Serukai missed penalty goals, including a second from in front of the goalposts 21 metres out with a chance to level things late and it proved costly.
Albury-Wodonga Steamers coach Paul Musarra was thrilled with their defensive effort.
"Defence wins big games," Musarra said.
"We probably made double their tackles.
"We had more chances with ball as well, so it was disappointing we couldn't capitalise as well on some good territory in attack, but credit to them they just kept on coming and coming."
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It took 29 minutes but the Steamers opened the scoring through Shaun Coel before a James Devlin penalty goal handed them a 10-0 buffer.
It only took three minutes into the second half for the Blacks to hit back when Andries de Meyer scored.
However, speedster Sam Allen put the Steamers back out to a 10-point buffer as he turned defence into attack following a Saione Ahomana mistake.
Scooping the ball up on the halfway, Allen stepped through the defensive line before racing away to score.
De Meyer reduced the margin with his second with around 17 minutes left remaining in the hard fought tussle.
However it was as close as the Blacks got despite plenty of late opportunities.
The Steamers will now travel to Griffith to face an Ag College outfit with the Albury-Wodonga unit downing them 46-15 three weeks ago.
However the Steamers have picked up a couple of injury problems.
Laurance Lockington came off with an ankle problem, Tom Wilmore's return from a knee problem was short lived, Charlie McIntosh came off late with a hand problem while Blake Le Cornu failed to make it through the warm up.
Musarra is hoping it's not all bad news for the club as they look to cement their first Southern Inland Rugby Union grand final spot since winning the 2015 decider.
Musarra is also looking to work on their discipline at the breakdown.