It was Harmony Day at North Ipswich Reserve, and on the field it was all about family as well, with four sets of brothers involved in the Round 11 Intrust Super Cup game between the Ipswich Jets and PNG Hunters.
The home side had the Pandia brothers, Richard and Sebastian, while their co-coaches are brothers Shane and Ben Walker. The visitors saw the halves pairing of Watson and Ase Boas, while Albert siblings Stanton and Wellington made their presence felt in the forward pack.
However, the Hunters weren’t in the mood to make friends and got on the board early when big front rower Wellington Albert spotted Dane Phillips isolated in the line he trampled over the top of him. Hunters led 4-0.
Adex Wera continued the Hunters’ progress when he scored 16 minutes later backing up the inside – his eighth try for 2017.
The Hunters’ leading point scorer this year is Israel Eliab and he added to his tally in the seven minutes before halftime when his team went the blind side again and scored to extent their imposing lead.
Wera contributed two penalty goals in the first half to give the Hunters a 20-0 lead at the break.
Midway through the second half, Jets’ captain Phillips took it upon himself to spark the Jets’ revival when he received the ball on the left and drifted across the field. He double-pumped the ball for the gap to open and was through.
Wes Conlon converted the try to bring up his 100th goal for the Ipswich Jets in his 50th game.
Ipswich had the momentum when Mitchell Carpenter shadowed a short kick from Phillips and he earned himself his first Intrust Super Cup try in his 11th game.
The Jets were back in the game with the scores at 20-12 with 14 minutes to go.
Ipswich were threatening to charge their way over their opposition, only for their comeback to be snuffed out when Ase Boas called the ball on the Hunters’ right, picked the option to run and exposed some tired Jets’ defence.
One more try capped off a fruitful trip to North Ipswich for the Hunters with Bland Abavu scoring in the Hunters’ left hand corner to end the afternoon with a 32-12 win for his side.
Next weekend, the Jets will take on Wynnum Manly at home, while the Hunters will clash with the Blackhawks.
See the full scoring details and final team line-ups via QRL Live
PNG HUNTERS 32 (Wellington Albert, Adex Wera, Israel Eliab, Ase Boas, Bland Abavu tries; Ase Boas 6 goals) def IPSWICH JETS 12 (Dane Phillips, Mitch Carpenter tries; Wes Conlon 2 goals) at North Ipswich Reserve.
