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PORT Macquaries season-long domination is over after Coffs Rugby Crushers ended its unbeaten run on Saturday. Even more remarkable was the Crushers 21-5 victory came on Pirates home turf at Stuart Park, a venue Port has turned into a virtual fortress in recent seasons. Put simply, the visitors forward pack was allowed to dominate and switching Richard Officer to provide go-forward at flyhalf worked a treat. Working in tandem with Brendan Hoy, the burly club president took the Pirates on in the middle and then played traffic cop with a band of willing support staff hanging off his passes. Another boost was the return of former Country Cockatoo forward Matt Hoy, who slipped into the hooking role early before switching to prop forward and terrorising the Pirates forward pack with charging runs and bruising defence. Meanwhile, club mates Coffs Breakers made it a double for the day when they cleaned up South West Rocks 43-0 at Smithtown Oval. Captain-coach Dylan Hurley revealed hed had some reservations about prospects on Friday when injury and unavailability had reduced the travelling party to the bare 15 players, but with four recruits arriving from the juniors for the match, the day was saved. Fortunately we had control from the start and the young blokes came through for me again, Hurley said. Im going to have Stuart McVicar on the bench for the rest of the year ... hes only 17 but a real goer. Also, Chris Jones played a full match for the first time this year and he went awesome. The results didnt change the order in the top four but has left second-placed Hastings Valley the main target for the Coffs Harbour teams. The Vikings come north to play Breakers next weekend and host Crushers a week later and if they lose both, will open the door for an all-Coffs grand final.

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