Photo of Jake Clifford courtesy of Gordon Greaves.
A match-up between the two most prolific players in the Intrust Super Cup has lived up to expectation, resulting in 72 points in 80 minutes.
In the end the Northern Pride prevailed 42-30, but not before Pride half Jake Clifford added 18 points to his season's tally and Souths Logan Magpies spearhead Guy Hamilton collected 10 of his own.
Clifford's effort was remarkable not only for the fact he was on the winning side, but because he also potted a perfect seven-from-seven conversion attempts at Barlow Park.
In the end it was only a seven-tries-to-six result, but the score difference was made all the larger by Clifford's dead-shot boot.
The other curiosity was that Souths Logan actually scored the first three tries of the game, racing in tries in the 4th, 7th and 12th minutes.
The Pride responded momentarily, but a further two tries to the Magpies made it 26-12 to them at halftime.
Then came one of the most explosive second half performances by a team in recent Intrust Super Cup history.
With Souths Logan's former NRL hooker Travis Waddell sin-binned two minutes before the break, the Pride came out more confident in the second half to run in five tries to one.
Souths Logan also had four players receive head injury assessments – Simi Fatafehi, Daniel Tamou, Paul Rokolati and Patrick Mago.
Early in the match they lost young Brisbane Broncos hopeful Thomas Flegler in the 10th minute to injury and he played no further part in the game, just moments after he notched a try.
It all added up to one of the more remarkable form swings over the course of a game, no doubt to the delight of the hometown Cairns crowd.
Full scoring details and final team lists available on QRL Live.
NORTHERN PRIDE 42 (Gideon Gela-Mosby, Graham Clark, Troy Kapea, Javid Bowen, Murray Tualagi, Brett Anderson, Jake Clifford tries; Jake Clifford 7 goals) def SOUTHS LOGAN MAGPIES 30 (Guy Hamilton, Thomas Flegler, George Fai, Brendon Gibb, Paul Rokolati, Simi Fatafehi tries; Guy Hamilton) at Barlow Park, Cairns.
