Tweed Seagulls RLFC, proudly backed by the Seagulls Club, return to the Piggabeen Sports Complex to take on the Central Queensland Capras on Saturday afternoon.
Tweed will be eager to get back into the winner’s circle following their 34-18 defeat to the Papua New Guinea Hunters in Round 12.
Coach Dave Penna wasn’t making any excuses after the game but conceded the heat in Port Moresby did have an impact on the players.
“The boys struggled with the heat but no excuses,” Penna said.
“We completed at 50% and you can’t win games when you give the opposition that much football.”
Tweed’s completion rate translated into only 46% possession but they managed to keep up with a brutal Hunters pack in yardage. The backline chipped in with Lindon McGrady, Kaleb Ngamanu, Lee Turner and Ryland Jacobs all finishing up with over 100 running metres. Meanwhile, the defence of Joe Vuna and Lamar Manuel-Liolevave put a cap on how far the Hunters could get up the field despite their possession advantage.
The Seagulls add more physicality to the pack this week with Luke Burton returning to the bench. Treymain Spry is also back into the centres where he has dominated to score six tries, hand out three try assists, record 11 line breaks and average 107 running metres per game in nine appearances this season. Tweed were uncharacteristically clunky attacking the edges last week so his return to the right side can reignite what is still the fourth-ranked attack averaging 28.9 points per game.
Round 13 marks as an opportunity for Tweed to get their revenge on a one-point loss in Round 1. Coming back from 16-4 down at halftime to bring the scores level at 22-all with five minutes to play, an Anthony Milford field goal two minutes before the siren ended up as the difference. The Capras have since won seven of their 11 games to be 5th on the Hostplus Cup ladder but did fall to the Brisbane Tigers 20-18 last week.
Bailey Butler is one to keep an eye on in the Capras side this week. He finished up with a season-high 226 running metres in Round 12. He’s cracked 170 metres in five of his last seven matches and leads the competition in post-contact metres. He will be a key figure within the Capras yardage game. Out wide, Brandon Roberts scored a double against the Tigers to take his tally to ten for the season – 2nd in the competition. Familiar to the Seagulls faithful, JJ Collins has also been named to start for his new team after playing 39 games in Tweed colours across the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
Penna spoke about the team coming together and looking at how they want to attack the back end of the season following the loss last week. After conceding only 21 points per game throughout the first ten rounds, the response will no doubt be based around defence after allowing 34+ over the last two rounds. While the Seagulls have slipped out of the Top 8 to now be 9th on the ladder, only two wins separate them from 1st with this week an opportunity to reposition themselves as a finals team.
Players To Watch
Treymain Spry’s return provides the Tweed attack with a big boost this week. The 23-year-old has been in top form throughout the Hostplus Cup season to be a consistent threat within one of the best attacks in the competition. His six tries and three try assists are impressive on paper. He’s a regular feature of Tweed’s good ball attack and a big target for Toby Sexton and Tom Weaver in the halves. However, it’s Spry’s work in yardage that often creates those opportunities.
Tweed often look to shift the ball while working out of their own end and Spry has proven tough to handle on those early shifts with room to move. He has now made 50 appearances for the club with his 107 metres per game the most he has averaged throughout his four-year career.
As Tweed try to play themselves back into form this week, look for Spry to feature heavily with the ball in hand.
Coaches Comments
The Seagulls are back home now but started preparing for this one shortly after their defeat in Papua New Guinea.
“We did all of our talking over there,” Penna said.
“We come back and had a really good session on Tuesday and we’ve got another session tonight [Thursday].
“The boys’ attitude around training has been really good so we’ve just got to keep going forward.”
Having conceded over 30 points in each of the last two games, defence has been a focus at training throughout the week. Still, it comes down to how the 17 approach it individually on Saturday.
“Defence is an attitude thing,” said Penna.
“When you’ve got 17 boys that have got the attitude that it’s important to them to make their tackles and stick to what our systems and what our processes are, then you put yourself in a really good chance of winning games.”
As one of the top attacking teams in the competition, though, they don’t play on leaving the point-scoring behind.
“We still need to focus on our attack, said Penna.
“We’ve been a bit clunky there as well.
“We’ve got to give ourselves more opportunity to build pressure. That’s something in our last couple of losses that we haven’t done well. We’ve got to learn that even if we are behind in games we’ve got to stick to what we know and be patient.”
Written by Rugby League Writers for Tweed Seagulls Media
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