A personal haul of 26 points from Brothers halfback Andrew Searle, was the catalyst that tore apart a brave North Lakes Kangaroos 68-0 in the Intech Men’s Open 3 North fixture at Gibson Park last Saturday.
The clever playmaker was in everything with his two tries, nine goals and setting up two other tries in the process, that had him easily take out best player on park.
In a day the Kangaroos would rather forget, it was all one-way traffic as the Leprechauns showed no mercy to cement a spot in this year’s finals series.
It was fitting that Searle would be the first player to score for the afternoon after two minutes of play, inching his way over out-wide to start the scoreboard ticking.
Brothers then stretched their lead to 12-0 after six minutes of play, when five-eighth Ivan Lynch sold a dummy to go in untouched.
The Kangaroos were struggling early on to contain the rampant home side and not three minutes later were in again courtesy of winger Thomas Martin, who scampered his way down the sideline.
The Kangaroos though refused to give up and a surge of powerful hits by forwards Jackson Foster and Matt Ingram, started to rattle a few of the Leprechauns players' cages.
However, Searle was in no mood to let the visitors back into the game and went in again for his second try of the afternoon after evading some ordinary North Lakes defence.
Two further tries a minute apart, (including a cracking solo effort by Lynch), sent Brothers into the sheds at the break with a commanding 36-0 lead.
After switching fields for the second half due to a serious injury on the main pitch, this did not distract Leprechauns' task at hand.
In fact, the home side stepped it up a gear as the Kangaroos became more tired as the game went progressed.
With one minute of play into the second half, Brothers were having a field day out-wide and Searle again threw a perfectly executed pass to his winger Jaidyn Fisk, who made no mistake putting the ball over the line.
To their credit, North Lakes were still hanging on regardless of the scoreline and a standing ovation needs to go out to all the Kangaroos players who never threw in the towel throughout the entire game.
The Kangaroos did enjoy some attacking moments of their own in the second half superbly led by hooker Jackson Currey and halfback Bronson Blakemore, who were outstanding in a losing side.
Back-to-back tries to Brothers; including a nice lunge over from dummy half by hooker Alex Downes, brought up the half century with 20 minutes of play remaining.
Brothers then regained the upper hand in the latter stages of the match when winger Martin went in for his double of the afternoon, blitzing his opposite number down the sideline.
Some late replacements for Brothers ensured the home sides for and against would be in good stead, with Ryan Francey’s fresh set of legs upping the scoreline in the 62nd minute to 62-0.
Perhaps the best try though was saved to last when winger Fisk regathered a chip over the top and stepped inside two North Lakes defenders to cross the try line and put the final nail in the coffin for the Kangaroos.
