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Landon HAYES (Ipswich Jets) Action from the round 12 clash of the Queensland Rugby League Intrust Super Cup between the Ipswich Jets v PNG Hunts played at Ipswich.
Photo: SMP Images / QRL Media

Seventeen Jets made a commitment that Sunday would be a day of digging into the line, taking the hard option and on the back of earning the right to play football; tries would come.

In this, Ipswich were led brilliantly by Carlin Anderson, Nat Neale and Richard Pandia.

They debuted two new players - Mikaera Beattie and Hugh Sedger, while Haydan Lipp and Josh Robinson dropped out.

Anderson was full of energy, darting around the field from side to side looking for the ball and wanting it to come to him.

His enthusiasm was rewarded when the Jets shifted the ball from the left to the right and back again through 12 sets of hands for Anderson to score his seventh try this year with a brilliant put-down just inside the corner post.

Pandia was playing against his countrymen and continued the Jets’ upbeat start when he scored in the right corner.

The Jets went to their right with Dane Phillips linking with Chris Ash who let his centre Ben White draw and pass, putting his winger over untouched for a Jets 12-0 lead. The Jets were looking dangerous using plenty of runners off the ball to suck the Hunters in and then attack wider.

At half-time the Jets had enjoyed 54% of the ball and had scored two tries to zero to be in front 12-2. The Jets had kept the Hunters try-less and defended their line, extinguishing several dangerous situations.

It would take the Hunters 12 minutes into the second half to score a try after they went to their right and centre and big man Thompson Teteh scored his 27th intrust Super Cup try, dragging Phillips and Nemani Valekapa over the line with him.

It only took two minutes for the Jets to answer the Hunters’ challenge and it came through the great work of White who received a long ball from Ash that put him on the outside of the  defender. White headed towards the try line sucking in two Hunters’ defenders then provided the perfect inside pass for his winger Pandia who had gone infield.

The Hunters couldn’t be kept out of the contest and it was Teteh again who took advantage of some Jets’ confusion at marker and took off towards the Jets’ left side on a huge run that ended 50m later when he passed infield to Watson Boas who scored to get the Hunters back to 18-12 with 17 minutes to play.

The Jets are at their best when captain Phillips is controlling the match with his brilliant short kicking game, which he displayed on the next play when he rolled it into the in-goal for the Hunters to fumble and Jets frontrower Nat Neale was on the spot for his fifth try this year. Neale had been sensational for the Jets and had every right after playing the whole match to not be chasing kicks.

The Jets iced the win on the back of a penalty with a shift to the left through two long passes that found Anderson who caught and off-loaded in one motion to find Sebastian Pandia, who put Valekapa over in the corner with his 34th try for the Jets.

Anderson knocked over the two points to finish with five from five.

The Jets had come away with a confidence boosting 30-12 win and will take on Tweed Heads next week while the Hunters have the week off.

See the full scoring details and final team line-ups for this game via QRL Live

IPSWICH JETS 30 (Richard Pandia 2, Carlin Anderson, Nathaniel Neale, Nemani Valekapa tries; Carlin Anderson 5 goals) def PNG HUNTERS 12 (Thompson Teteh, Watson Boas tries; Noel Zeming 2 goals) at North Ipswich Reserve.

XXXX Man of the Match: Nat Neale (Ipswich Jets)

Acknowledgement of Country

Queensland Rugby League respects and honours the Traditional Custodians of the land and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future. We acknowledge the stories, traditions and living cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on the lands we meet, gather and play on.

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