is a match one would think would be a run-away win for our super-fit defence force. Not so.

In front of an enthusiastic crowd in excess of 350 the young sirens from JCU took it up to the army team matching them try for try, goal for goal until the last minute of the game when a converted penalty would have sealed the match for the Army team.

But it was not to be, and JCU took the coveted Chancellor’s Cup by the narrowest of margins, 27-26.

In a game in which the Army forwards had the wood on the JCU pack and the JCU backline was far to slick for our defence force, the lead changed six or seven times and the crowd was on its feet when, in the last 30 seconds of the game, the army team was awarded a penalty six metres in from the touch line.

A successful conversion would have sealed the game for the army but the ball drifted to the left of the uprights and the Chancellor’s Cup went to JCU for the second year in a row.

This was the seventh time the match has been staged and the win/lose tally now stands at three all and one draw making next year’s match a must-see for all rugby fans.

The degree of excitement and suspense in the game ranked it up with any grand final football match in Australia.

Played in conjunction with the Chancellor’s Cup was the Commander’s Cup for female rugby players.

*Full story and more photos in this week’s North Queensland Register, out now.