The Romano Group Seagulls have staged a remarkable comeback to earn their third win of the season, and first successive victory, against the Central Queensland Capras at Rockhampton’s Browne Park this afternoon.
The Seagulls were down 8-0 after only six minutes and 16-0 just seven minutes before half-time yet crawled back to win 36-28.
It was a terrible start, with the Gulls kicking dead in goal from the first set, and conceding a try in the Capras’ first after a penalty. Then they kicked out on the full and the Capras scored soon after. However, the Seagulls never lost their nerve or confidence to get back into the contest.
They scored two tries in the five minutes before the break, bringing the score back to 16-8 and then added two more tries in the first 11 minutes of the second half, along with a penalty goal which gave them 22 successive points to secure a lead (at 22-16) that they never relinquished.
And the run began with a long-range intercept try to flying winger Dave Sheridan in his return to the ISC competition. The other winger Peter Lee also snatched an intercept try in the 70th minute to take the lead to 30-22 before hooker Will Johnstone secured the points by sneaking over from dummy half six minutes from the end.
Lee’s first try came in the 39th minute, after an old-fashioned wrap-around move involving Sam Saville, who put in his best performance of the season, and then Lee gtting the overlap after quick-hands from John Olive.
Four minutes into the second half it was Saville’s turn to cross, from an opportunity created by a brilliant one-handed offload from Dane Clarke. Seven minutes later Lindon McGrady was over, after hooker Sam Meskell reacted quickly from dummy half and spotted a defender retiring slowly and created space for McGrady.
Johnstone relieved Meskell after 55 minutes and earned himself a try by plunging over from dummy half to make the score in the 74th minute, soon after Lee’s runaway. The Capras crossed for a consolation try in the 79th minute.
Lee, who again was strong returning the ball from his end of the park and under the high ball as well as picking up a try-double, was awarded the players’ player award while Saville and Clarke were strong and McGrady recovered from some early errors and was dominant in the second half.
Skipper Meskell was again superb at dummy half and tireless in defence while prop Ben Nakabuwai was again strong and energetic up front.
“It was tremendous how, after not starting well, the team was able to overcome the bad start and get back into the match quickly once we got a bit of possession and momentum.
“We weren’t near as good as the week before against Redcliffe, but we showed a fair bit of character.
“We worked hard on speeding up our play the ball in the second half which allowed us to use our skill, and we had more possession by playing smarter and completing better.
“Our challenge as a group is to be more consistent and we have been for the past month. Earlier in the season we had games where we were close winning, or won (against Norths Devils in round 7) but been poor the following week.
“Today, after the great win against Redcliffe, they turned the game around with their own efforts and by just doing their jobs, was really rewarding. We’re never going to be perfect, and things can go against us, but you have to weather the storm and work for things to turn.
“Last week everything went our way and we won, today not everything went our way but we still found a way to win. It’s a great step forward.”
Gold Coast Titans forward Agnatius Paasi started the match and punched out 44 minutes (33 in his first spell) and needed the run under his belt, but looked menacing in his second spell.
TWEED HEADS SEAGULLS 36 (Peter Lee 2, David Sheridan, Samuel Saville, Lindon McGrady, William Johnstone tries; Lindon McGrady 6 goals) def CQ CAPRAS 28 (Guy Williams 2, Oliver Percy, Ken Tofilau, Matthew Groat tries; Cody Grills 3, Tony Tumusa goals) at Browne Park.
For teams and full scoring details, CLICK HERE
For video highlights CLICK HERE
For the extensive match statistics CLICK HERE
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