Last Friday night saw us take on Southside at West Barlow Park. We started the game strongly being camped in there half for a majority of the first 20 minutes, unfortunately with no score. Our defence stood up to the challenge in the close skirmishes around the ruck and mid field. However it wasn’t long before the Crusaders found gaps in our defence and then proceeded to play on it. It was unfortunate to see poor tackling allow the Crusaders four tries to close out the half. We finished the first half down 26 to 3, which unlike the score board showed we where still in the game and where definitely the fitter of the two sides.
Half time saw us have a good look at our selves and as much as it was hurting we kept positive talk and instead of focusing too much on what we did wrong we looked at what we where going to do better.
The second half showed more promise, as our attack seemed to strengthen and our defence even though still showing weakness started to lift. To the boy’s credit they put in until the end scoring four tries of our own. Unfortunately they did score three of their own. The final score in my opinion did not show how the boys played but in turn showed a lack of defence. Comments where made to me after the game by out side sources that they did believe we showed a lot of positives.
Another positive I did bring from the match was our discipline, the penalty count definitely favored us as Southside’s penalty count grew. We saw them have one Red Card and One Yellow Card and on some occasions bordering on professional fowls considering we received up to 6 penalties right on there line towards the end of the game.
Southside 45 (7 Tries 5 Conversions) def JCU 29 (Oscar Fasavalu, Shannon Mackey, Ralph Susuve and Brendan Turner 1 Try each, Dion Pryor 2 Con & 1 Pen, Ralph Susuve 1 Conversion).
3,2,1’s
3 – points Ralph Susuve
2 points – David “Disco” Ryan
1 point – Oscar Fasavalu
Mangers Mug – Scott Thompson
