May 9, 2013
Rugby league fans enjoyed a feast of football in Kingaroy on Saturday with a representative game and two top-class A Grade matches to watch at T.J. O’Neill Oval.
The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the clash between the unbeaten Wondai Wolves and last year’s premiers, the Cherbourg Hornets.
The two sides had met in Round 1 with Wondai winning by just one point in the last 14 seconds from a penalty goal.
This time around, the victory went to Cherbourg by two points, 46-44, after a see-sawing game of football in which many of the players had backed up without a break after playing a 70-minute representative match.
Brodie Litfin, who had run off the field just minutes before wearing the Wide Bay Northern Rangers colours, opened the scoring for Wondai with a try just one minute after kick-off. Jameel Sullivan converted.
Cherbourg replied within minutes after Bowman Dynevor took an intercept close to his line and ran almost the length of the field. Fred Aubrey – who had kicked seven goals in the earlier rep match – made no mistake with the conversion.
Cherbourg then scored twice more (Vincent Watson and Brendan Saltner) before Wondai did likewise (Harrison Miller and Brodie Litfin).
With 12 minutes left in the first half, the scores were tied 18-all, but neither side wanted to cruise to the break.
Aubrey crossed for Cherbourg (and converted his own try) and then Wondai’s kicker Jameel Sullivan returned the favour – again levelling the scores at 24-all.
A Cherbourg touchdown was ruled no try after a forward pass but then with 20 seconds left before half-time, Luke Hedges kicked a penalty goal for Wondai, breaking the deadlock. The half-time score was Wondai 26, Cherbourg 24.
The see-sawing continued after the break with Cherbourg scoring twice (Patrick Alberts and Nathan Gadd), followed by Wondai (Wes Knight and Jack McDowell). With only one of the conversions successful, the scores were back locked 34-all.
With 18 minutes left in the game, a brilliant run by Wondai’s Danny Alberts brought cheers from the crowd and took the Wolves into the lead 38-34.
But six minutes later, a spiralling bomb that came down out of the darkness set up Cyril Georgetown to score for the Hornets. Aubrey’s kick from the sideline put Cherbourg back into the lead, 40-38.
This could have been greater a few minutes later but Aubrey – obviously tired from the earlier match – failed to ground the ball properly over the line after a strong run down the sideline.
With six minutes left Bernard Hopkins added more points for the Hornets after he regathered his own chip kick and scored. Aubrey’s conversion was on target (his seventh for the match, and 14th for the day).
However, the Wolves weren’t finished yet …. two minutes before the full-time siren, Jameel Sullivan scored his second try, which he converted successfully. Sullivan finished the day with five goals.
Wondai was on the attack again with less than a minute to go but were forced into touch inches from the line, bringing an exciting game to a thrilling conclusion.
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The second match played on the day was the Division Country Challenge representative match between the Wide Bay Northern Rangers (“Wide Bay Country”) and the South West Country Mustangs.
The game is set to become a feature of the Representative calendar as it offers the opportunity for players outside the metropolitan competitions to play rep football and to gain further representative honours in Division teams.
There was a strong representation of South Burnett players in the Rangers side as well as two local players drafted into the Mustangs.
The Rangers dominated the first half with tries to Fred Aubrey, Stanley Bligh, Faron Aubrey and Brodie Litfin.
But four minutes before half-time, the Mustangs struck back with a try to Dion Willett. Then with seconds left, Sililo Stavenov scored again for the South West side, making the half-time score look more respectable at 24-12.
The second half was more even. Tim McIntosh, Stanley Bligh, Faron Aubrey (twice) scored for the Rangers while John Trindall and Ashley Smallwood (twice) scored for the Mustangs.
The full-time score was Wide Bay Northern Rangers 46, South West Country Mustangs 30. Fred Aubrey kicked seven goals for Wide Bay while Craig Mitchell kicked five for South West.
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Stags fans went home happy on Saturday after Nanango enjoyed a well-deserved win over the Blackbutt Timbertowners.
Nanango have gone close before, but this time held on to win their first game of the season and the first match of the triple header played at Kingaroy.
The game began evenly with both sides alternating tries in the first half – Brad Staple, Jayden Jarvis, Robert Ryan and Chris Sperling for Nanango; and Keiran Harvey (2) and Ashley Smallwood for Blackbutt). At half-time, Nanango led 20-18.
After the break, Nanango’s Pat McCallum opened the scoring but Blackbutt quickly replied through Sam Lurton, drawing the score at 24-all.
The Stags then changed gears, adding three tries in 15 minutes – Pat McCallum (2) and Nathan Weimer – and drawing away to a 42-24 lead.
But four minutes from full-time, Lurton intercepted a pass and took off for the line to score his second try for the Timbertowners.
The final score was Nanango 42, Blackbutt 30.
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Results
At Murgon
u12 – Murgon 46, Blackbutt 12
u14 – Murgon 50, Kingaroy 24
u16 – Murgon 26, Central Burnett 28
u18 – Murgon 30, Fraser Coast 32
Next weekend, the Murgon Mustangs U18s will be taking on Wallaroos at Murgon at 1:00pm
At Kingaroy
U12 – Kingaroy 22, Nanango 14
U14 – Kingaroy 20, Nanango 36
U16 – Kingaroy 14, Nanango 16
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