University coach Shaun McCreedy has lamented a missed opportunity after the Bulls played out a thrilling draw with Bowral on Saturday.
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University were forced to travel to Eridge Park for the clash after heavy rain saw the match relocated and the drama didn't stop there for the Bulls.
McCreedy's men took it to the Blacks for the entire match, having the ascendancy for much of the contest. However, like they did in their round 10 loss to Avondale, the Bulls were unable to maintain the intensity for the full 80 minutes and fell away in the final 20.
Holding a 12-point lead with 13 minutes to play, Uni were unable to close it out through a mix of poor ball handling and ill discipline.
A try to Bowral's Harry Parsons in the 77th minute took the scores to 38-31 and ensured McCreedy and the Uni supporters were in for a nervous finish.
After peppering the Uni try line with wave after wave of attack, the Bulls finally cracked, with Timothy Lewis crossing for the hosts in the 84th minute.
When Bowral five-eighth Lachlan Huntington missed the conversion from 15 metres in from touch, it appeared Uni had escaped with a crucial five points.
It was not to be, however, the referee handing Huntington a second attempt at goal after ruling the Bulls made noise during Huntington's run up. This time the reigning Illawarra Rugby player of the year made no mistake, levelling the scores at 38-all with the final kick of the game.
"It's quite bittersweet," McCreedy said. "The pleasing thing was we get three points, but pretty disappointed we didn't come away with five.
"We led all the way, were up by 12 with 13 to go. We had opportunities to close out the game, but ill discipline let us down. Through loose carries and penalties, we shot ourselves in the foot."
The draw means Uni sit in fifth position on the ladder, two points behind fourth-placed Shamrocks and three points behind Vikings after both teams picked up bonus point victories on Saturday.
McCreedy said his team will take confidence from Saturday's result but recognises they must start defeating the top teams if they are to play finals football in 2019.
"Saturday will give us confidence," McCreedy said. "We played well against Avondale a couple of weeks ago and let that one go as well. There's something about us being able to put together a good 60 to 80 minutes, rather than 40 minutes of good football and 40 minutes where we let ourselves down.
"The top four is going to come down to who can win some of the big games. We've got to play both Shamrocks and Vikings and have games against teams below us who won't be easy and will look to play a spoiling role. It's not going to be an easy run home."
In Saturday's other matches, Shamrocks beat Kiama 41-8, Vikings defeated Camden 50-29 and Avondale extended their competition lead with a 39-10 win over Campbelltown.
Tech's match with Shoalhaven was washed out.
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