TOOWOOMBA
CLYDESDALES 28
Tries: Justin
Hodges 2, Brent Tate, Tony Duggan, Nathan Murphy
Goals: Damien
Quinn 4
Team: 1.
Ken McGuinness, 2.
Damien Quinn, 3. Justin Hodges, 4. Brent Tate, 5.
Steve Irwin, 6. Tony Duggan, 7. Nathan Murphy, 8. Kirk
Reynoldson (c), 14. Nathan Friend, 11. Michael
Coorey, 15. Ben Czislowski, 12. Paul Carige, 13. Darren Ingram. Interchange: 16. Elia
Tuqiri,
17. Christian Robertson, 18. Adam Hohn, 19. Josh
Hancock.
defeated REDCLIFFE DOLPHINS 22
Tries: Luke
Scott 2, Troy Mitchell, Stuart Cruickshank
Goals: Damien
Richters 3
Team: 1. Adam Mogg, 2.
George Wilson, 3. Jason Webber, 4. Damien Richters,
5. Troy Mitchell, 6. Phil Graham, 7. Michael Roberts,
8. Troy Lindsay, 9. Craig O'Dwyer (c), 10. Luke
Scott, 11. David Shillington, 12. Danny Burke, 13. Tony Gould. Interchange:
14. Barry Denduck, 15. Russell Lahiff, 16. Stuart
Cruickshank, 17. Sam Patterson.
Venue: Dolphin Oval
Date: Saturday August 4
Referee: Adam Neale
Half-time: Toowoomba 16-4
Penalties: Redcliffe 8-7
Scrums: Redcliffe 10-8
When They Scored: 6 min: Toowoomba 4-0 (Tate
try), 9 min: Toowoomba 10-0 (Hodges try, Quinn goal),
23 min: Toowoomba 10-4 (Mitchell try), 37 min:
Toowoomba 16-4 (Duggan try, Quinn goal), 45 min:
Toowoomba 16-10 (Cruickshank try, Richters goal), 50
min: Toowoomba 22-10 (Murphy try, Quinn goal), 61 min:
Toowoomba 28-10 (Hodges try, Quinn goal), 68 min:
Toowoomba 28-16 (Scott try, Richters goal), 71 min:
Toowoomba 28-22 (Scott try, Richters goal).
Toowoomba
managed to hold off a fast-finishing Redcliffe outfit
to record a nail biting 28-22 win at Dolphin Oval. The
Dolphins staged a great comeback, being 28-10 down at
one stage, and had a try disallowed by the video
referee right on the stroke of fulltime, which would
have got them a draw. Halfback Michael Roberts knocked
on in the in goal as he was trying to force the ball
down after he put in a grubber kick. Had he not had a
go at the ball, it would have been a try as Jason
Webber also came through and forced the ball down
shortly after.
The Clydesdales got off to a perfect start with
centres Brent Tate and Justin Hodges both crossing for
tries in the first 10 minutes. Tate ran off a
nice pass from Tony Duggan and showed great
acceleration to sidestep the attempted tackles of
Damien Richters and Jason Webber to score in the right
hand corner. Minutes later, Hodges decided to
take on the defence at the Dolphins' line and
succeeded at crossing over for his first try.Redcliffe had a couple
opportunities to strike back but two attempts at tries
were both denied by the referee Adam Neale. Tony
Gould was the first to be knocked back as he was
penalised for a double movement. However, the
decision to rule Damien Richters to be have been held
up over the line was a very questionable one.
Neale didn't bother to consult the video ref and
decided to rule himself.
Despite these setbacks,
the Dolphins were finally able to put some points on
the board when Troy Mitchell scored in the right-hand
corner. Toowoomba had failed to find touch from
a penalty and that indiscretion eventually cost them a
try. A few tackles later, Redcliffe was able to
quickly pass the ball to the wing of Mitchell and he
able to catch the opposition short in defence to cross
for a simple try.
Clydesdales 5/8th Tony Duggan gave his side a decisive
break at half-time when he darted right through the
middle of the ruck and crossed for a try, just before
the break. Duggan simply stepped his way through
some non-existent defence and Quinn's easy conversion
gave Toowoomba a 16-4 at half-time.
The home side needed to
be the first side to score in the second half if they
were to get into back and that came from replacement forward
Stuart Cruickshank. Cruickshank was put into a
gap by Adam Mogg and sprinted 40 metres to score the
try.
However, they undid all
that good work, just a few minutes later, by allowing
Nathan Murphy an open invitation to the try line.
The Clydesdales' halfback, like his half partner did
in the first half, dodged and weaved his way through
some ordinary Redcliffe defence.
Justin Hodges was
copping stick from the Dolphin Oval crowd all day but
the recently dumped Bronco had the last laugh when he
crossed for his second try in the 61st minute.
Fullback Kevin McGuinness nicely caught a wayward bomb
and managed to break the defence. He gave the
ball to Elia Tuqiri and he sprinted down the sideline
before turning the ball back inside to Hodges and the
centre scored under the posts.
Just when the game was starting to slip away from
Redcliffe, in came big prop Luke Scott to
get them back into the game. Scott twice barged
his over the line in successive minutes to narrow
Toowoomba's lead back to 6 points and, all of a
sudden, they had a chance to snatch an unlikely draw.
However, it was not to
be for the home side. The video referee had
correctly ruled that Michael Roberts had knocked on at
fulltime and the Clydesdales held on for a 28-22 win.
It was an exciting
match of football bar the disappointing refereeing
display from Adam Neale, who made several puzzling
decisions throughout the game. There was a lot
of emotion showed by the players (and the Dolphin Oval
crowd!) which led to lot of passion and big hits being
put on. The Dolphins made a good comeback, after
being down 18 points at one stage, but it wasn't quite
enough to ensure victory. They now have lost
second spot to Burleigh, who defeated Central on the
weekend, and face a tough challenge ahead to make the
grand final. It is not a task not beyond them
but the key is now not to lose any more matches until
the semi-finals. A another loss to Ipswich next
week will be a massive blow to their premierships
aspirations.
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