WARWICK went down 20-6 to Valleys on Saturday at Herb Steinohrt Oval to miss out on a spot in the under-18 President’s Cup final next month.

The Cowboys only had to win to be sure of a spot in the final but missed out as Souths beat Newtown to book the second spot in the final.

In A-grade, Warwick trailed 22-4 at half-time before fighting back to reduce the Valleys margin to 22-16 with five minutes to go.

Valleys scored two late tries to win 34-16.

Centre Michael O’Keefe scored two tries and had a great game along with five-eighth Jesse McIvor.

Cowboys secretary Garry Hanson said the players knuckled down well in the second half.

“The club is very proud of their efforts. Ben Carter played a full reserve-grade game and then sat on the bench in A-grade and performed well in the back row,” Hanson said.

“Prop John Trindall had his best game in A-grade all season.”

In reserve grade, Warwick was down on numbers due to four players being out with injury and lost 58-0. Craig Cantwell was one of the best for the Cowboys.

At Oakey, the A-grade game yesterday against Brothers was washed out due to a hail storm in the first half and the game declared a draw.

While the weekend fixtures were the last in the first round, the Toowoomba Rugby League has brought round 12 of fixtures forward to this weekend and put the Madsen Rasmussen Trophy and President’s Cup finals off to June 11 at Newtown so the games can be broadcast by Ray Hadley’s Continuous Call team on 2GB and networks, including 4GR.

The Warwick Cowboys travel to Goondiwindi for three games on Sunday from 11.30am.

Hanson said it was important for all players to train each Tuesday and Thursday at 6pm at Father Ranger Oval.

“We are looking forward to the visit by St George on June 18 to meet the community and be at Cowboys home games,” he said.