A Michael Purcell double and a late moment of brilliance has seen the Ipswich Jets defeat the Essential Coffee Burleigh Bears 18-12 at North Ipswich Reserve.
71 minutes into what was an incredibly tight contest, Ipswich fullback Wes Conlon made the decisive play, grubbering ahead from mid-field, kicking the loose ball ahead before regathering and offloading to Purcell who ran away to score the match-winner.
While outside of this decisive play there was nothing pretty about their overall performance, it was the first time the Jets had beaten Burleigh since 2013.
The way they able to grind out the win would have also pleased co-coaches Ben and Shane Walker.
The Jets started with a bang when at the end of their first set of six, Purcell scored his seventh try after his captain Dane Phillips launched a huge mid-field bomb that made its way through a number of Jets hands before he could complete the scoring play.
However, the Bears were able to stay in the contest thanks to a Henare Wells try in the 10th minute.
A Conlon penalty goal gave the lead back to the Jets, but the Bears gained the upper hand in the 33rd minute when half Keanu Te Kiri ran an inside line off Kurtis Rowe to score, giving Burleigh a 10-8 lead at the break.
The Jets and Bears exchanged penalty goals to start the second half, with Wes Conlon and Te Kiri both successful.
With the scores 12-10 to the Bears, the game settled into a testing affair with both teams looking for momentum.
In the end though, the Jets found the answer through Purcell who scored his double and his eighth try of the year when Conlon spotted some space behind the line and exploited it with a short kick and re-gather before passing to his fellow speedster to score under the posts.
Conlon converted to give the Jets the 16-12 lead before icing the win with a 40m penalty goal.
See the full scoring details and final team line-ups for this game at QRL Live
IPSWICH JETS 18 (Michael Purcell 2 tries; Wes Conlon 5 goals) def BURLEIGH BEARS 12 (Henare Wells, Keanu Te Kiri tries; Keanu Te Kiri 2 goals) at North Ipswich Reserve.
