The Northern Pride have a top-of-the-table TV clash against Tweed Seagulls to look forward to this Sunday following an injury-hit 28-20 win against Wynnum-Manly in the latest round of Intrust Super Cup matches.
After sitting as 18th man for the North Queensland Cowboys against Canterbury on Saturday night, Kyle Feldt made the trip from Sydney to Brisbane on Sunday morning and scored two of the Pride’s six tries that maintained their five-point ladder lead.
Feldt’s NQ teammates Hezron Murgha and Javid Bowen were also on the scorers’ sheet with all of the Cowboys contingent’s tries coming in a dominant first half.
Unfortunately for the Pride, goalkicker Shaun Nona missed with all four conversion attempts to leave them 16-0 up.
It was a different story in the second 40 with tries to Mitch Buckett, Peter Gubb and Chris McLean bringing Wynnum to within two points with 15 minutes remaining.
The Pride were also fighting a losing battle against injury, with Murgha succumbing to a hamstring problem at half time and Feldt replaced after copping a bang to his knee.
However Pride captain Jason Roos quietened the Wynnum faithful when he broke the line and found Sheldon Powe-Hobbs for a try to extend the visitors’ lead to 24-16.
Buckett grabbed a second for the Seagulls but that was soon cancelled out by another four-pointer to Sheldon-Hobbs that ensured the Cairns team returned home with another victory.
“It was certainly the most courageous win I’ve been a part of,” Pride coach Jason Demetriou told the Cairns Post.
“We had players playing out of position by the end and we absorbed a lot of pressure but held on.
“They had a lot of ball in the second half but we kept fighting for one another. The players were out on their feet but it’s the sort of effort I want us to show every week.”
Meanwhile, Mackay maintained their status as one of the competition’s most in-form teams, beating Redcliffe 30-20 at Dolphin Oval to secure their fifth win out of six.
The Dolphins only led once – 8-6 briefly – and were 18-8 down at half time before being put pretty much out of business when the premiers scored first after the break.
Cowboys hooker Anthony Mitchell was outstanding in the first half, setting up Liam Taylor’s opening try with a 30-metre break down the right and he then bobbed up to run into a hole before scampering another 25 metres for Mackay’s second.
Fellow Cowboy Zac Santo produced a brilliant solo try, running backwards five metres before turning to blast his way through the middle of the Dolphins defence, beating three defenders along the way.
After looking dead and buried two months ago, the Cutters are now up to eighth place, six points outside the top five.
They have a huge contest away against the fifth-placed Ipswich Jets this Saturday night.
"We got the jump early, but weren't really great," coach Kim Williams told the Mackay Mercury of the Redcliffe win.
"We got the job done."
NORTHERN PRIDE 28 (Kyle Feldt 2, Sheldon Powe-Hobbs 2, Hezron Murgha, Javid Bowen tries; Shaun Nona 2 goals) def WYNNUM MANLY SEAGULLS 20 (Mitchell Buckett 2, Peter Gubb, Chris McLean tries; Matthew seamark 2 goals) at BMD Kougari Oval.
MACKAY CUTTERS 30 (Josh Osborne 2, Zac Santo, Liam Taylor, Anthony Mitchell tries; Liam Taylor 5 goals) def REDCLIFFE DOLPHINS 20 (Aaron Whitchurch 2, Marty Hatfield, Jon Green tries; Adrian Davis 2 goals) at Dolphin Oval.
