On the back of some great kicking from Oberon’s Luke Branighan and fellow half Luke Petrie, Group 10 played the territory game better than its opposition and it helped the light blues build a 22-8 lead mid-way through the second half.

Orange CYMS winger Tom Satterthwaite – who won the Terry Brown Medal as the game’s man of the match – had four of those five tries for Group 10, the final of his quartet a spectacular leap and catch for the ball over his opposite number.

The Orange CYMS fullback’s finishing on the back of the Group 10 All Stars backline was simply superb.

But goal-kicking proved an issue, with Branighan booting just one from his four attempts on goal and Jackson Brien missing another.

Branighan admitted post game he thought successfully converting tries might be an issue without a front-line goalkicker. 

He was right, too, as the misses allowed the Indigenous side to mount a serious comeback in the second half, Josh Rainbow scoring two tries and Blake Lawson crossing for a pearler of his own late in the game to edge their team ahead by two points.

With just a minute left on the clock, though, Group 10 struck with hooker Ben Thompson darting down a short side to put Lachie Munro in space.

The young CYMS utility put in a small chip kick only for it to deflect off the Indigenous defence and land back in his chest before diving over to score in the corner and secure the 26-24 win.

“It’s been a very long week for me and it’s nice to see there’s a positive at the end of it,” Branighan smiled.

“Ben Thompson, very gutsy in the end, going down the short side and it paid off.

“I definitely wanted to win. There was much more to that in terms of the whole day but (Group 10 All Stars) haven’t won this before, and anyone that plays under me knows I like to win.”

Skipper Will Ingram, and his teammates, thought they had the game after Lawson scored to edge the Indigenous side ahead for the first time in the contest with three minutes remaining.

It wasn’t meant to be, though.

“That’s the cruelty of football. You’ve never got anything until the final siren goes,” Ingram said.

Still the clash was a wonderful spectacle, one celebrating both the Indigenous culture Group 10 boasts and, as Ingram said in his post match speech, multicultural Australia. The Group 10 All Stars side featured a number of players with Pacific Island backgrounds.

Ingram helped facilitate the first game in 2016 and said he will continue to do so.