A first half display of power and guile was too much for a spirited Eagleby Giants as Souths Inala Warriors ran out 46-0 winners in their Rugby League Brisbane Southside Open 3 clash on Saturday.
Inala, playing out of St Brendan’s Kookaburra Park this season, made it three wins from three outings and sit at the top of the ladder after sweeping aside the Giants in sweltering conditions.
Superbly led by halfback and captain Matthew Stanley, Inala were near faultless and it was some spirited defence by Eagleby and some off-target goal kicking by Inala that prevented the score blowing out even further.
Inala centre Daniel Stanley scored the first of his side's 10 tries after he collected a nice floating pass from Stanley to zip away and score in the fourth minute of play.
Stanley again was in the thick of the action as he toyed with the Giants defence to fire out a beautiful cut out pass finding powerful centre Maroni Niu who made no mistake going over untouched to score their second.
Further tries to fullback Des Namok and lock Kunta Matini (who nailed a superb touchline conversion), made it 20-0 at the halftime break.
One minute after the restart, the Stanley’s combined again, with Matthew Stanley masterminding another precision pass to find Daniel Stanley who shrugged off three would be defenders to score his second.
Eagleby were well behind on the scoreboard, but were certainly standing up to the opposition and were damaging in parts, dishing out some ferocious defence of their own. Junior Wakka, Jimmy De La Cruz and the hulking Reeff Tangata were arguably the Giants best.
Inala kept the scoreboard ticking over, however, and added another try to winger Paul Lulia whose scintillating sideline burst saw the flanker tip toe down the sideline to score inches from the line.
It was Matthew Stanley’s day, however, and when it appeared Eagleby’s first try was imminent, he picked up a loose carry from the Giants like a thief in the night. He put on the afterburners to race 80m and score a magnificent individual try.
Shortly after, Niu romped in for his second try after the afternoon, using his brute strength to stroll in for the easiest of tries.
With 40 seconds left on the clock, replacement Warriors player Nathan Bani ended the game with an exclamation point by grubbering through for himself and scoring under the sticks.
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* Mike Simpson is the Rugby League Brisbane correspondent for the QRL
