The Tweed Heads Seagulls’ senior under-age teams have been beaten for the first time in 2017, both going down to Western Mustangs on a soggy Owen Park in driving rain at Southport.
The under-20s FOGS Colts Cup went down 20-16 after making a brave second half comeback from 14-0, while the Mal Meninga Cup (under-18s) paid for constant errors and were well beaten 34-18.
The Mustangs played an effective conservative wet-weather style in the 20s clash, completing their first 11 sets and muscling up in defence to go to a 14-0 lead at the break.
But the Gulls fought back with three tries in the first 33 minutes of the second half to take the lead at 16-14, only to concede a try in the final four minutes.
The Mustangs grubbered into the wet in-goal but, instead of pushing the ball dead, the Gulls tried to clean up the kick, only to lose possession and have the ball pounced on by a Mustangs player.
“To their credit, the Mustangs played a real conservative game with tremendous completion in the first half and taught is a lesson in discipline,” said coach Jamie McCormack.
“I thought we had opportunities to win the game and it was a good effort to grab the lead at 16-14, but in hindsight I think the Mustangs deserved the victory.
“Hopefully it’s a learning experience for us and we can show that after having a bye this weekend.”
Lock Zane Wiltshire was tireless for the Seagulls while prop Luke Paulsen never stopped putting in effort in the heavy conditions.
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WESTERN MUSTANGS 20 (Jazz Namana, Jackson Shelswell, Jordyn Kuhn tries; Jordyn Kuhn 2, Wally Pegler 2 goals) def TWEED HEADS SEAGULLS 16 (Faatupu Lisati, Tyler Ingram, Jake Gleeson tries; Bayley Gill 2 goals) at Southport Tigers RLFC, Owen Park.
The Brad Davis-Tim Maccan coached under-18s were on the back foot from the get-go after not handling to the wet conditions and paid dearly for too many errors.
The Mustangs took advantage of a glut of possession in the first half to lead 28-6 at half-time and in the tough conditions there was no coming back from that.
“We were poor, making every error in the book from forward passes, knock-ons and dropping kick-offs,” lamented Davis.
“We really didn’t really give ourselves a chance, which was really disappointing, while the Mustangs played well enough.”
Second-rower certainly could not be criticised for effort while captain Charlie Gee and Saiah Barker kept turning up for work.
The Seagulls take on Souths Logan at Piggabeen before the ISC match on Sunday week and the under-18s hope to have captain Luke Mastroianni back after missing the past two games with injury.
Each team has three matches remaining in the preliminary rounds.
WESTERN MUSTANGS 34 (Lachlan Perry, Christopher Chambers, Brock Diment, Richard Murray, Cory Paix, Travis Turnbull tries; Cory Paix 5 goals) def TWEED HEADS SEAGULLS 18 (Blake Campbell, Isaiah Barker, Isaac Lee tries; Jaman Rio 3 goals) at Southport Tigers RLFC, Owen Park.
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