The Sunshine Coast Falcons have prevailed against a determined Wynnum Manly Seagulls, winning 18-6 at Sunshine Coast Stadium.
The home side drew first points of the afternoon, through a try via centre Justin Olam in the 23rd minute.
While the teams were producing end-to-end football, both sides found it difficult to capitalise on their field position and there were no further tries scored in the first half with the Falcons take a 6-0 lead at the break.
Falcons coach Craig Ingebrigtsen said he was pleased with his side’s performance in Round 18 where they earned their first win in two weeks.
“I think we’ve been rewarded for our last two weekends of footy, we’ve played some really quality oppositions in the past two weeks (PNG and Townsville), so to get the win today was off the back of what we’ve been doing recently,” Ingebrigtsen said.
“The boys have worked really hard for the last few weeks, so it was nice to finally be able to come home with the points.”
It only took eighth minutes of the second half for the Falcons to score their second try of the afternoon, this time through winger Matt Soper-Lawler.
Seagulls hooker Mitch Cronin then put his side on the scoreboard in the 57th minute, finally cracking the strong defence of the Falcons.
Ingebrigtsen too praised the defensive efforts of his opposing Seagulls; saying the proved a challenge for the duration for the afternoon.
“Wynnum are a quality side and club with a really strong defensive line, so when you can beat them by being relentless in attack it’s always pleasing,” he said.
“Defensively, they were really good today and managed to prevent us from scoring on several occasions.”
With just five minutes left of play however, the Falcons crossed for their third try of the afternoon through Sam Burns, before returning NRL player Sandor Earl crossed in the 79th minute, sealing the win 18-6.
The coach was full of praise for how his sided performed both in attack and defence.
“Lachlan Timm was outstanding today, he played 72 minutes in the middle, and was really good defensively,” Ingebrigtsen said.
“Harry Grant, our hooker, was another one that was really great today, especially backing up from the Queensland Under 20s Origin on Wednesday night.”
The win lifts the Falcons two points closer to the top six and they will be searching for back-to-back wins when they head up north to play the Mackay Cutters at Bowen’s Denison Park during Country Week.
“We have got to go up there and do our best to prevent them from scoring to many points,” he said.
“They’re a side that is really well coached, so it isn’t like they don’t know what they’re doing.”
See the full scoring details and final team line-ups for this game at QRL Live
SUNSHINE COAST FALCONS 18 (Justin Olam, Matt Soper-Lawler, Sam Burns, Sandor Earl tries; Matt Soper-Lawler goal) def WYNNUM MANLY SEAGULLS 6 (Mitch Cronin try; Patrick Templeman goal) at Sunshine Coast Stadium.
Photo: File Image from Round 11
*Emily Clooney is a QRL Correspondent
