WHEN it comes to defence, Queensland do it best.
It is a part of the game that Queenslanders pride themselves on, the famous Maroon wall that stops anything Blue in its tracks. Queensland Rangers proved it again in early July at Lismores Oakes Oval, running in five tries to register a 24-12 win over the New South Wales Ron Massey Cup representative team.
New South Wales controlled the early stages of the game and scored first through centre Cecil Mackenzie. Queensland stood its ground and repelled further attacking raids, building up a defensive effort the 17 men in maroon will remember for some time.
They took a 10-6 lead into half time, before producing arguably the best defensive effort displayed by a Queensland Rangers team in recent memory. The Ron Massey Cup team were camped in their attacking third, pounding the line and coming within inches on several occasions.
Rangers held them out for what seemed like an eternity, and you could sense all they needed was an opportunity. A sniff came in the 50th minute when they forced an error and earned a penalty to march downfield.
They worked their way up to within 10m of the try line, before a cross-field kick on the last found a flying Justin Castellaro in the right corner. In the blink of an eye Castellaro doubled his haul, setting up a memorable victory for the men north of the border.
XXXX QUEENSLAND RANGERS 24 (Justin Castellaro 2, Mathew Templemen, Shaun Maloney, Rhys Cooke tries; Mitch Seri, Jack Joass goals) def NSW RON MASSEY REP 12 (Cecil Mackenzie 2 tries; Aaron Fluke 2 goals) at Oakes Oval, Lismore.
