Neil Cadigan
The young new look Ben Campbell Building Group Seagulls showed what potential they have for this season when they were in the match until the final three minutes against Norths Devils at Bishop Park before going down 24-12 yesterday.
The contest was closer than the score indicated with the Devils scoring four tries to the Seagulls’ three with Gulls goalkickers unable to convert any of the tries.
Coach Ben Woolf was certainly satisfied with the effort and the improvement that is within his side.
Titans-contracted 18-year-old prop Moeaki Fotuaiki was strong in his first match in open-age company while new halves pairing of 19-year-old Titans prospect Alexander Brimson and recruit Eli Levido grew with confidence together after only two training sessions as a pairing.
“I thought we competed pretty well and had a few opportunities in the second half to score a try and get within two points after being behind 20-8 at half-time,” Woolf said.
“Our completion rate was pretty poor which counted against us but the longer the game went the more belief had in what we could do.”
Three of Norths’ four tries came through the middle, which the Seagulls pack will learn from, while Tweed’s three tries were all constructed from good shift-plays across the field.
Norths took the lead after just six minutes through a converted try to Brisbane Broncos’ Samoan international prop Sam Tagataese. They crossed twice more in the next 17 minutes to go to an 18-4 lead, with the Gulls crossing for their first try of the season through left winger Tevita Folau after Brimson went left and created a three-on-two and fullback Ali Grant showed a nice touch to put Folau away.
The Gulls brought the score back to 18-8 in the 34th minute through young Titans winger Kiah Cooper when a shift to the right gave Cooper an overlap but he had a bit of work to do against the scrambling cover before scoring after receiving the final pass from Brayden McGrady.
After a Norths penalty goal just before the hooter sounded to make it 20-8 at the break, McGrady narrowed the deficit to eight points eight minutes into the second half.
The Gulls had much of the play in the next 20 minutes but could not get the try they needed and the Devils sealed the match with a try to hooker Alex Bishop who was able to skirt outside the Seagulls’ markers and cross from dummy half with three minutes left on the clock.
“It was a good first hit out and a few good performances by some of the players,” Woolf said.
“Moeaki really performed well for his first time against a big senior pack and certainly wasn’t overawed by it for an 18-year-old.
“He played big minutes carried the ball strongly throughout game Sam Meskell really worked hard in defence and cleaned up well quite a few times.
“Brayden McGrady had some good touches and, as a whole the backline looked sharp when we got some ball movement which was really encouraging.”
NORTHS DEVILS 24 (Sam Tagataese, Luke Pollock, John Palavi, Alex Bishop tries; Herbie Farnworth 4 goals) def TWEED HEADS SEAGULLS 12 (Tevita Folau, Kiah Cooper, Brayden McGrady tries) at Bishop Park.
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