THE Tweed Heads Seagulls recorded an important win at home at Piggabeen yesterday afternoon with their upset 23-14 victory over a more fancied Easts Tigers outfit.
The two points puts the Seagulls within two wins of the top five; with the middle of the Intrust Super Cup ladder crowded with teams who are also similarly placed.
The match started well for the home side who opened the scoring firstly via backs Tom Merritt and Blake Anderson, before speedy Easts winger Jarrod McInally got his side on the board with his fifth try of the season.
However, Merritt went in again for the home side who took a 16-4 lead into the halftime break.
Along happy with the margin; all sides who play the Tigers worry about how many points will be enough to hold out the Easts attack.
The start of the second half seemed to spark the visitors into action as they attempted to win their first game at the Piggabeen ground since 2006.
The Tigers scored two quick tries firstly to Tim Glasby then Tom Butterfield to narrow the margin to 17-14 with only five minutes remaining to set up another classic finish between the two sides.
The past three games between them have been decided by a converted try or less; so close results was nothing new for the clubs.
However a try to Tweed prop Damian Sironen with only a minute remaining on the clock sealed the deal for the Seagulls who record their first win at home this season.
In team news, Gold Coast Titans hooker Matt Srama made his return to the field from a shoulder reconstruction which had him sidelined for eight months.
Hard-working backrower Cody Nelson was a late omission for the side after being call up to make his NRL debut for the Titans via the bench in their win against the Wests Tigers.
TWEED HEADS SEAGULLS 23 (Tom Merritt 2, Blake Anderson, Damian Sironen tries; Beau Henry 3 goals; Beau Henry field goal) def EASTS TIGERS 14 (Jarrod McInally, Tom Butterfield, Tim Glasby tries; Cody Walker goal) at Piggabeen Sports
Final Team lists:
Tweed Heads Seagulls
1. Jamal Fogarty 2. Kalifa Faifai Loa 3. Luke Dumas 4. Blake Anderson 5. Tom Merritt 6. Matt Srama 7. Beau Henry 8. Damian Sironen 9. Matt King (c) 10. Pele Peletelese 11. Josh Harvey 12. Cory Blair 13. Tom Kingston 14. Sam Irwin 15. Sam Saville 16. Chris Piper 17. Reg Saunders
Easts Tigers
1. Eddie Tautali 2. Maeli Seve 3. Hymel Hunt 4. Donald Malone 5. Jarrod McInally 6. Cody Walker 7. Grant Giess 8. Steven Thorpe (c) 9. Tom Butterfield 10. Felise Kaufusi 11. Dane Hogan 12. Troy Giess 13. Jacob Ling 14. Liam McDonald 15. Foisa Peni 16. Tim Glasby 17. Joel Romelo