Henson Park home crowd provides the inspiration for Newtown’s first win of the season

The Newtown Jets survived a prolonged second halfonslaught from the North Sydney Bears to hold on for a thrilling 32-30 win at Henson Parkon Saturday afternoon.

The Jets bounded out of the blocks to run up a 24-0lead after just twenty-seven minutes, but then faced the inevitable pushbackfrom the Bears once they obtained more ball and field position. Norths scoredtwo converted tries in the ten minutes leading into halftime for Newtown to take a 24-12lead into the break.

The second half provided an abundance of thrills forthe big crowd at Newtown’sfirst home game of the 2019 Canterbury Cup NSW season. The Jets increased theirlead to 30-12 early in the second half, but the Bears dominated for theremaining thirty minutes. Norths turned on a near-flawless display in thesecond half, with a high completion rate and only one error being made in theentire second forty minutes.

Norths methodically ran Newtown’s lead down, drawing level with theJets with fourteen minutes still to play. Newtownkicked a penalty goal nine minutes from fulltime to edge ahead by two points.In what must have seemed an eternity for Newtown’sarmy of supporters, the Jets repelled everything the Bears threw at them inattack in those tense final moments and hung on for their first victory of theseason. The win doubtless will be a great morale boost for this young Jetsteam.

Highlights of the afternoon included:

• Wes Lolo’s clever off-load in the ninth minute thatgave young five-eighth Luke Polselli the opportunity to score;
• Siosifa Talakai’s amazing try in the eighteenth minutewhen he displayed almost Herculean strength to brush aside a posse of Northsdefenders to score in the south-western corner. As John Lynch remarked, thistry was very like those that used to be scored by the likes of the formerCronulla Sharks and New Zealand Kiwis forward Kurt Sorensen;
• Newtown’s superb try in the forty-ninth minute from amidfield break and an exchange of quick-fire passes involving Braydon Trindall(twice), Cruz Topai-Aveai, Joshua Carr and Luke Polselli (who scored his secondtry of the day). This was an exceptional display of skills and endeavour from agroup of young players who are relatively new to the rigours of open-age rugbyleague such as the Canterbury Cup NSW;
• Braydon Trindall (man of the match in the 2018 JerseyFlegg Cup grand final) kicked six goals from six attempts on Saturday (fiveconversions and one penalty goal), with three of his conversions being from thesideline and into the breeze;
• This was all against a very strong North Sydney teamthat was in second place on the competition table, and one that is clearlyshowing the benefits of the first year of their extended partnership with theSydney Roosters;
• Newtown’s better players onthe day included Tyla Tamou, Will Kennedy and Luke Polselli in the backs, alongwith Daniel Vasquez, Jimmy Jolliffe, Wes Lolo and Billy Magoulias in theforwards.

Match details: -

Newtown 32:

Rusiate (Isaac) Lumelume 2, Luke Polselli 2, SiosifaTalakai tries;

Braydon Trindall 6 goals

defeated

North Sydney 30:

Bernard Lewis 2, Jerry Key, Brock Lamb, Ed Murphytries;

Brock Lamb 5 goals.

Halftime: Newtown led 24-12.

Referee: Martin Jones.

Touch Judges: James Vella andClayton Wills.

Playing surface: Excellent.

Weather: Fine, light clouds,25 degrees, light southerly breeze.

Newtown’s team:

Will Kennedy, Tyla Tamou, Matt Evans, RonaldoMulitalo, Rusiate (Isaac) Lumelume, Luke Polselli, Braydon Trindall, Wes Lolo,James Segeyaro, Jaimin (Jimmy) Jolliffe, Daniel Vasquez, Siosifa Talakai, BillyMagoulias.

Bench: Teig Wilton, Greg Eastwood, Joshua Carr, CruzTopai-Aveai.

Coach: Greg Matterson.

North Sydney:

Kieran Moss, Asu Kepaoa, Ed Murphy, James Tuitahi,Bernard Lewis, Lachlan Lam, Brock Lamb, John Tuivaiti, Bradley Deitz, MaxBailey, Thomas Freebairn, Drew Hutchinson, Josh Curran.

Bench: Kurtis Preece, Jerry Key, Fletcher Baker,Stefano Hala.

Coach: Jason Taylor.

Details of Newtown’next game – please make note of theearlier kick-off time:

NSWRL CanterburyCup NSW – Sixth Round

Sunday, 21^st April 2019

Henson Park

Newtown v Penrith

Kick-Off: 1.00pm.

This match will be televised live on Channel Nine.