The Absolute Enterprises Mackay Cutters have produced their best performance of the season with a dominant win over the Tweed Heads Seagulls at BB Print Stadium Mackay last night.
Spurred on by a vocal crowd, the Cutters were too good for the Seagulls, producing some outstanding attacking football and a pace the visitors just couldn’t match.
Things started well for the Seagulls when they caught the Cutters napping on their try line early in the contest.
A misread in defence saw Sam Irwin latch onto an offload and race through a yawning gap to score a simple try.
Looking to make up for their lazy start, the Cutters were soon on the attack, and they exploited the Seagulls goal-line defence with a sweeping set play that had Jordan Pereira running onto a pass from Tautau Moga and muscling his way through several tackles to score in the corner.
After getting their first taste of points the Cutters were keen to add to their tally, and when Tweed Heads gifted them possession deep in their own half the home side weren’t going to waste it.
Unable to go through the Seagulls defence the Cutters decided to go over it, and a pinpoint cross field bomb from Delayne Ashby hit a soaring Liam Taylor on the chest and he planted the ball down to give the Cutters the lead.
With momentum on their side, Mackay were working themselves into a nice rhythm with the ball, and a brilliant piece of attacking play saw their lead extend further when Pereira flew high to tap back a midfield bomb to a waiting Moga, who showed great fingertip control in reeling the ball in and he raced away to score under the posts.
The misery didn’t stop there for Tweed Heads, not even the halftime siren would save them as Mackay found more points just seconds from the break.
A neat grubber kick through to the in-goal from Ashby had Andrew Davey diving across to score, and the home side headed to the sheds with an 18-6 lead.
The difficult game for the Gulls continued after the break too as the relentless Mackay side forced the visitors into several repeat sets of defence on their own try line.
With the Seagulls defence running on fumes, it was only a matter of time before Mackay found points. Yosepha Kepa found himself scoring Mackay’s fifth try of the night as he danced his way through the weary Tweed Heads defence to score.
With the floodgates open and their attack flourishing the Cutters were making it look easy as they went about icing the game, Davey getting himself a double as he sliced through the deflated Tweed Heads defence to score untouched as the Cutters hit the 30-point mark for the just the second time in season 2016.
With the game all but over, Tweed Heads got themselves a long range consolation try in the final few minutes when Jacob Garland got the ball on an overlap and streaked away downfield, linking up with Michael Burgess on his inside who touched down under the posts in a length of the field effort.
But it was too little, too late as the Cutters celebrated their fourth win of the season, the final score 30-10.
See the fill scoring details and final team line-ups for this game via QRL Live
MACKAY CUTTERS 30 (Andrew Davey 2, Jordan Pereira, Liam Taylor, Tautau Moga, Yosepha Kepa tries; Liam Taylor 3 goals) def TWEED HEADS SEAGULLS 10 (Sam Irwin, Michael Burgess tries; Sam Meskell goal) at BB Print Stadium, Mackay.
