A five-try blitz in the first half helped set the Souths Logan Magpies up for a strong win over the CQ Capras at Davies Park today.
Prop forward George Fai started the scoring early for the home side, going over in the third minute before winger Paul Rokolati got the second only seven minutes later.
Mid-way through the half, big Dave Taylor tried to drag his side back into the contest literally, carrying a number of defenders with him who were trying to bring him down; but instead they only brought down his shorts as he reached out to slam the ball onto the turf.
The try was awarded much to the consternation of the Souths fans behind the in goal – but they need not have worried as a couple of Capras errors in the warm and humid conditions had the visitors on the back foot again.
Souths halves Sam Scarlett and Guy Hamilton were scheming all afternoon, and the next try came after a little kick through was chased hard by Marion Seve who was rewarded with a four-pointer.
Fullback Corey Allan then compounded the pain for the visitors, again going down the left-hand side with seven minutes left to go in the half.
Halftime could not come soon enough for the Capras, but unfortunately for them, there was still time for the Magpies to continue to apply the pressure, which told when the Capras sent the ball out on the full from the kick-off.
Scarlett did it himself when he went down the left-hand side again to put an exclamation point on a dominant half which ended with the Magpies taking a 28-4 lead into the sheds.
The Capras tightened their defence considerably in the second and it took until the 59th minute before they could hold them out no longer, when a powerful run from Patrick Mago saw him crash in under the posts. Hamilton’s successful conversion and a penalty goal four minutes later had the home side up for the final score of 36-4.
The Capras though were not going to die wondering, with Taylor trying to contribute where he could; be it attempting a chip ahead or a bullocking run.
The closest the CQ side got to their second try followed a huge Taylor hit up where he successfully flicked an offload to the short side where Nathan Bassani was backing up.
Bassani made the break, but could not outrun Hamilton who was able to drag him into touch; shutting down the play.
Magpies coach Jon Buchanan said he was pleased with the way his side didn’t let off the intensity, despite getting out to an imposing lead early.
“Sometimes when you kick away early like that (it can be) hard to hang in and finish it off,” he said.
“(The Capras) turned up and were pretty desperate, so I thought we did a really good job of defending our line.
“We preach it every week; we want to see a bit of desperation in defence.
“We probably had enough footy today and probably didn’t have to do too much defence – but when we did, I thought we were good.”
Next week, the Magpies travel ton PNG to face the Hunters while Capras are at home for a Saturday night game against the Northern Pride.
See the full scoring details and final team line-ups for this game via QRL Live
SOUTHS LOGAN MAGPIES 36 (George Fai, Paul Rokolati, Marion Seve, Corey Allan, Sam Scarlett, Patrick Mago tries; Guy Hamilton 6 goals) def CQ CAPRAS 4 (Dave Taylor try) at Davies Park.
