Rumours in rugby league aren’t uncommon … sometimes they’re true sometimes they’re less than truthful and sometimes it doesn’t matter either way.
The Ipswich Jets were told that the Central Queensland Capras were coming to Ipswich on Saturday night to expose their middle and to show everyone else how to beat the high flying Jets.
Standing in the way of this plan would be international Ben Hannant who was making his debut for the Ipswich Jets, in-form props Rod Griffin and Kurtis Lingwoodock, along with the smaller forwards who would need to weather the storm and return fire at the big Capras’ pack.
The Jets forwards started strongly with captain and forward leader Keiron Lander leading his team to a 4-0 lead after five minutes.
Lander is making a healthy habit of scoring first this year for the Jets and getting them off to a good start. Kurt Capewell added the extras for a 6-0 lead.
Capewell wasn’t content with just converting tries and added to the score sheet with his own try in the ninth minute after a clever kick to the left corner which he grounded to record his fifth try of the year. He added the two points and the Jets were out to a 12-0 nil start inside the first 10 minutes.
For the next 10 minutes the game settled into both teams trying to find a way to open up the defence.
The Capras spread the ball in the middle of the field to their right hand side, the Jets were caught out after a nice chain of passing and former Ipswich Jet Smith Samau ran 40m to score in the right hand corner.
Just minutes later, the Capras crossed again in the right corner and Brent Crisp converted to close the gap to 12-10.
Enter Dane Phillips, who has started to remind Ipswich Jets’ fans of another famous Ipswich half who liked to kick for himself and score when for the third game in a row he spotted the gap, threaded the ball and sped through to score himself.
Conversion duties this time fell to Wes Conlon who added two points and made the score 18-10 to the Jets.
The kicking master class was then passed over to Josh Cleeland, who kicked for a flying Wes Conlon who scored in the right hand corner for a 24-10 half-time lead.
New addition Hannant played the whole first half and was looking for plenty more game time in the second half.
The game ebbed and flowed with errors with no score added until the Capras’ Marlon Doak showed the speed that earned him four tries last week by shutting down a dangerous Jets attack and running 100m to score.
With 14 minutes remaining and the margin now cut to 10 points, the Capras were close enough to push for victory.
Young Ipswich winger Carlin Anderson, playing just his second game, came infield looking to make an impact and achieved his objective when he went straight through the middle, stepping off his left foot and leaving Central fullback Reece Baker grasping at nothing to score his first Intrust Super Cup try.
Conlon’s conversion was successful and that meant with six minutes to play the Jets lead 30-14.
But Ipswich weren’t done with the scorers yet. Cleeland turned the Capras inside and out to seal the game for the Jets 36-14.
IPSWICH JETS 36 (Kurt Capewell, Carlin Anderson, Josh Cleeland, Dane Phillips, Keiron Lander, Wes Conlon tries; Wes Conlon 4, Kurt Capewell 2 goals) def CQ CAPRAS 14 (Hayden Buckman, Smith Samau, Marlon Doak tries; Brent Crisp goal) at North Ipswich Reserve.
Final teams
Ipswich Jets: 1. Javarn White 2. Kurt Capewell 3. Nemani Valekapa 4. Brendon Marshall 5. Carlin Anderson 6. Josh Cleeland 7. Dane Phillips 8. Kurtis Lingwoodock 9. Troy O'Sullivan 10. Rod Griffin 21. Ben Hannant 12. Sam Martin 13. Keiron Lander (c) 14. Tariki Peneha 17. Marmin Barba 19. Wes Conlon 22. Matt Parcell
CQ Capras: 1. Reece Baker 2. Hayden Buckman 3. Marco Delapena 4. Smith Samau 5. Rhys Williams 6. Mark Johnstone 7. Marlon Doak 8. Arlin Paki 9. Theeran Pearson 10. Peter Gallen 11. Liam Pickersgill 12. Guy Williams 13. Gavin Hiscox (c) 15. John Clayton 17. Matt Mizzi 21. Andrew Dale 18. Brent Crisp
