Blackhawks outlast Falcons

Monday, August 24, 2015

It was a slow start at Sunshine Coast Stadium in the penultimate round of the Intrust Super Cup for 2015 with neither the Townsville & Districts Mendi Blakchawks nor the Sunshine Coast Falcons crossing the line in the first quarter of the match.

The low scoring match was riddled with errors and dropped ball from both sides but the Falcons defended strongly and headed into the break with momentum and the lead. The Mendi Blackhawks took their time to get into a rhythm and finally ruled out the possibility of a Falcons win in the late stages of the second half.

The visitors came away with a hard fought 20-13 win from their final away match of the year putting them into first place on the Intrust Super Cup ladder leading into the final round of the regular season.

It took 18 minutes for Anthony Mitchell to finally score the first points of the match diving over from dummy half and Rob Lui converted to give the visitors a 6 nil lead. Ten minutes later the Falcons’ Jacob Samoa evened up the points just prior to half time. Melbourne’s Ben Hampton showed his experience taking a field goal in the final set to give the home side a 7-6 lead going into the break.

The Falcons started the second stanza with a bang as Hampton continued to show his talent slicing through the Mendi Blackhawks line with ease to score a solo try two minutes into the half. The home side were now leading 13-6 and continuing to put pressure on the visitor’s defensive line.

At the 48th minute Zac Santo took on the Falcons line and scored in much the same manner as Hampton, beating several defenders on his way to take the score to 13-12. The Mendi Blackhawks finally began to capitalize on the Falcons mistakes as Rhyse Martin crossed the line at around 60 minutes in to put the visitors back in front 16-13.

A hard running Kelepi Tanginoa put the game away just minutes before full time. Too big and too strong to stop close the line, his try a just reward for his hard work during the match. Tanginoa worked well alongside middle mainstays Dan Beasley and Neville Costigan to keep their side in the match.

“It certainly wasn’t our best performance of the year but the positive is that we were able to grind out a tough win with a lot of things not working for us.” Coach Kristian Woolf said.

“Sunshine Coast deserve a lot of credit for the way they turned up and made us work very hard for a win which is exactly what we needed at this time of year.”

TOWNSVILLE BLACKHAWKS 20 (Zac Santo, Anthony Mitchell, Kelepi Tanginoa, Rhyse Martin tries; Robert Lui 2 goals) def SUNSHINE COAST FALCONS 13 (Ben Hampton, Jacob Samoa tries; David Oakes 2 goals; Ben Hampton field goal) at Sunshine Coast Stadium.

 

Photo Gallery courtesy of Vanessa Hafner