Townsville & Districts Mendi Blackhawks notched up a half century of points on Easter Saturday in front of their home fans at Jack Manski Oval against the Wynnum Manly Seagulls.
In a match that saw the Blackhawks reach the 1000 point mark in the Intrust Super Cup, the home side were convincing 50-10 winners in the Round 4 clash.
Tries came from both edges and through the middle as the Blackhawks had a field day against a Wynnum Manly side that in what has become a familiar tale – managed to make their way up the field when in possession, but failed to execute when it mattered.
Townsville showed their intent to cross the line from the beginning, scoring two tries in the first six minutes before the Seagulls joined the party to take the score to 10-6 halfway through the first half.
The Seagulls were never really in the match though and didn’t score another point until two minutes before full time.
The Blackhawks on the other hand took advantage of every opportunity that came their way and scored three tries in quick succession before half-time to send them into the break leading 28-6.
Wynnum seemed to have no answer for the home side’s physicality and compounded their own pain by producing a raft of errors in attack.
Townsville halfback Michael Parker-Walshe and fullback Jahrome Hughes had the ball on a string during the match; setting up tries, breaking tackles, repeatedly troubling the defence and looking a class above.
The home team’s left edge of Jonathon Reuben, Moses Pangai and Rhyse Martin again combined effectively to look dangerous whenever the ball swung their way and five-eighth Kyle Laybutt was strong despite a copping a head knock during the second half.
Debutant Lona Kaifoto had a solid game in the back row, along with other Blackhawks recruits and interchange players David Munro and Kieran Quabba, who did plenty in defence and made their presence known in attack.
The Blackhawks are now the only unbeaten side in the 2016 competition.
Coach Kristian Woolf was pleased with his team’s “comprehensive” performance, but what may concern the rest of the competition is that he believes his side still have things to improve upon.
“The weekend’s game was probably our most complete performance so far this season and certainly gave a glimpse of what this team is capable of,” he said.
“Our task over the next few weeks is to keep improving on this performance in what is going to be a very tough period of away games against some of the strongest opposition in the competition.”
Head to QRL Live for the final teams and scoring details for this match
TOWNSVILLE BLACKHAWKS 50 (Jonathon Reuben 2, Moses Pangai 2, Glenn Hall, Delouise Hoeter, Rhyse Martin, Anthony Mitchell, Samsen O’Neill, Michael Parker-Walshe tries; Kyle Laybutt 5 goals) def WYNNUM MANLY SEAGULLS 10 (Mitchell Cronin, Mitchell Buckett tries; Mathew Seamark goal) at Jack Manski Oval.
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