THE Inglewood Roosters played their best footy of the season to beat Goondiwindi Blue in the Patron's Cup final at Inglewood on Saturday.

The final was between the two leading teams at the end of the first round of fixtures.

Captain-coach Matt Gainey won the man of the match trophy after playing in what he described as one of the toughest games in the past six seasons in the Border Rugby League.

"The win was set up by our forwards. We had a good bench for once this season," Gainey said.

"Jason Emerson and Brent Bennett were really good in the forwards."

It wasn't all one way traffic in the forwards.

"Goondiwindi also has a strong forward pack. Halfback David Wild and five-eighth Jake McCosker were good for the Blue team," he said.

Inglewood led 16-10 at half-time and then Goondiwindi scored an early converted try to level the scores in the second half.

The home side scored two tries midway through the second half for a 10-point lead before Goondiwindi scored with five minutes to go to reduce the margin to six.

Border president Neil O'Connor rated the match the best he had seen in country footy for many years.

"The defence of both teams was outstanding," he said.

"Both teams behaved well on the field. There were no incidents and the game was played in great spirit."

There was a large crowd at the game which came early for the women's rugby league game in which the Inglewood side went down to the visiting Toowoomba team.

The game at Inglewood doubled as the club's Pink Day for the season in support of breast cancer research.

Wallangarra scored the upset of the round with a 26-18 victory against Stanthorpe.

Farron Anderson was man of the match and scored two tries for Wallangarra.

Lock Tom Costanzo was the best for Stanthorpe.

The win boosts Wallangarra's semi-final hopes with Killarney and Wallangarra likely to battle for the fourth position in the semis.

Killarney did their semi chances no good with a 62-16 loss to Tenterfield at Tenterfield on Saturday.

Peter Jeffreys, captain Geoff Swan and Jim Loneragan were the best for the home side. Centre Dan O'Reilly scored three tries.

Prop Jim Trindall made a lot of ground in attack for an under-strength Killarney side.

Tenterfield president Damian Petrie said he was happy with his side's performance.

"We have won our recent games by large margins which makes it hard to gauge where we are," Petrie said.

"I still think Inglewood and Goondiwindi Blue are the teams to beat.

"We will see where we are at when we play Inglewood at home in a fortnight."

SCORES

Inglewood 26 (Matt West, Bennett Sutton, Corey Greentree, Matt Gainey, Jarrod West tries, Gainey 3 goals) d Goondiwindi Blue 20 (Wade Gresty, Michael King, Casey Herde, Jake McCosker tries, Gresty 2 goals).

Wallangarra 26 (Farron Anderson 2, Deon McIntosh, Chris Hickey, George Miles tries, Miles 3 goals) d Stanthorpe 18 (Gary Skimmings 2, C. Thorne, tries, Brad Crisp 3 goals).

Tenterfield 62 (Dan O'Reilly 3, Jim Loneragan 2, Peter Jeffreys, Geoff Swan, Jarred McIntosh, Wesley Doo, Simon Andrews, Damian Petrie tries, Swan 9 goals) d Killarney 16 (Dion Galloway, Jake Weier, John Trindall tries, Chris McGregor 2 goals).