Norths Devils continued to build on their dominant season so far, beating Central Queensland Capras 36-12 on Saturday at Bishop Park.
Their strong defensive performance only allowed the Capras two tries in the first half, both by Tony Tumusa, and they shut down their Rockhampton opponents in the second; all while putting up seven tries of their own.
The Broncos-contracted Kodi Nikorima led for the Devils with two tries, in addition to scores from David Faamita, Michael Lucas, Delouise Hoeter, Chris Sandow and Javarn White.
Todd Murphy’s boot again helped boost the Norths score, adding four conversions.
Hoeter, who moved to the Nundah club from Townsville in the off-season, is currently tied for third for top try scorer in the league with five.
“I thought our defence was very good again,” Norths Devils coach Mark Gliddon said.
“Our execution was a little bit down in the first half, and they got two tries from it, but to the boys credit I thought they defended pretty well and keeping them to zero in the second hand was a real (positive).”
The win by Norths sees them sit in first place on the Intrust Super Cup standings with four wins and one loss.
While the season is still young, Gliddon was proud to see his team do the right things when it came to their defensive game.
“Defence is an attitude, and at the moment I think our attitude is in the right place,” Gliddon said.
“We just need to pick up our execution a little bit with the football in attack, and if we can get that right, we can hopefully keep going in the right direction.”
According to Gliddon, the squad standouts so far include the work rate of captain Billy Brittain, Hoeter, Murphy and prop James Taylor.
The Devils now face a tough opponent this weekend against the Souths Logan Magpies for their XXXX Rivalry Round game, who are coming off a 44-12 decisive win again the Tweed Heads Seagulls.
Gliddon understands it will be a challenge going into Davies Park on Sunday, as he faces off against a club with some talented players (including key Broncos-contracted talent) as well as an experienced head coach in Jon Buchanan.
“They’re a good footy team, and they’re well-coached, Jon Buchanan is … certainly going to leave no stone unturned,” Gliddon said.
“We need to be on our game this week. They’re a good team and they’re coming off a strong victory over Tweed Heads, so we’re going to look over the video this week and work out where we can try and get them.”
The two sides will square off Sunday, April 9 at Davies Park at 3pm, while the Capras will play Mackay.
See the full scoring details and final team line-ups for this game via QRL Live
NORTHS DEVILS 36 (Kodi Nikorima 2, David Faamita, Michael Lucas, Delouise Hoeter, Chris Sandow, Javarn White tries; Todd Murphy 4 goals) def CQ CAPRAS 12 (Tony Tumusa 2 tries; Tony Tumusa 2 goals) at Bishop Park.
