Beenleigh Juniors cruised to a gutsy 30-18 win on Saturday over an error ridden Easts Tigers side that never really got out of second gear in a scrappy afternoon of football.
In a drama filled game, it was the Easts Tigers who opened the scoring in the sixth minute with a brilliant little short pass from five-eighth Lachlan Reilly to send second rower Hayden Murdoch crashing over to score. Michael Gunthorpe made no mistake with the conversion to have the Tigers leading 6-0 early on.
Beenleigh hit straight back after Easts dropped the ball from the restart to send Beenleigh on the attack and it was a clever piece of play by lock Josh Joshson to find five-eighth Tristan Pearce to cross the line. Rhys Gorman failed with the conversion to make the score 6-4 to Easts.
The Tigers who had trouble holding the ball all afternoon, knocked on whilst in the run of play and it was Beenleigh who made the Tigers pay with a clever rehearsed move from the scrum base, saw brilliant halfback Gorman throw a magic pass to send fullback Ash Warner on his way untouched under the posts in a runaway 50m try. Gorman converted to put Beenleigh in the lead 10-6.
Defence by both teams was excellent with notable players Chang and Joshson from Beenleigh and workhorse Easts prop Josh Everett easily the best player on the field. Everett’s powerful runs and Hercules like defence earned him a four pointer straight under the posts after some brittle Beenleigh defence.
The conversion was successful and the Tigers clawed their way to the lead once again at 12-10. But it was Beenleigh who looked more hungrier in attack and feeding off the Tigers mistakes to go in again just before halftime with a pirouette from dummy half by five-eighth Pearce to score beside the posts. Gorman knocked over the conversion to round off the first half 16-12 to Beenleigh.
In the second half it was Beenleigh who were having trouble holding the ball and a knock on early had the Tigers on the prowl in attack. It was the 46th minute before the Tigers were able to add to their tally with a damaging run by Tigers back rower Murdoch again crashing over to extend the Tigers lead 18-16.
But that’s where things turned pear shaped for the Tigers as injuries took their toll and a ruthless display by Beenleigh showed no mercy who began to step it up a notch to take the bull by the horns.
Next on the Beenleigh scoresheet was Greg Twist who after receiving a beautiful cut out pass by Gorman went in untouched under the posts right in front of the pig pen to put Beenleigh in front once again 20-18. An easy conversion made the score 22-18.
It was clever playmaker Pearce once again for Beenleigh who dodged the Easts defence and offloaded a great pass to an unmarked Toryan Wong to score in the corner further adding salt to the Tigers wounds. An off day with the boot and another unsuccessful conversion by Gorman had a rampaging Beenleigh in front 26-18.
Full credit to a depleted Tigers outfit however as they never threw in the towel in defence and worked hard with what troops they had, but it was to be Beenleigh’s day and a final try to powerhouse second rower Richard Coatalen sealed victory for the home side. Gorman again missing the conversion and a well deserved win to Beenleigh 30-18.
