Tweed get the two points with win over Jets in Springsure

The Tweed Seagulls piled up the points early on their way to a 38-26 win over the Ipswich Jets at Bauhinia Park, Springsure.

It didn’t take long for the Seagulls to register on the scoreboard. Presented with an opportunity to attack in good ball after Ngangarra Barker failed to defuse a Lindon McGrady bomb, Brian Kelly plucked a McGrady cross-field kick out of their air to open the scoring in just the second minute.

As they so often do, the Seagulls looked straight to the edges in return. Left and right, they surged up the field and produced a strong set after points to control the early stages of the match. However, the Jets scored their first in a similar fashion to the Seagulls. This time it was Paul Turner who failed to defuse a bomb, and with five Ipswich players around to clean up the scraps, Blake Lenehan levelled the scores at 6-6.

Back-to-back penalties as the Seagulls worked out of yardage hurt the Jets. Tweed looked to the right side and found success through Turner as he skipped past his defender into the backfield. He couldn’t link up with Scott Galeano to finish the job this time. With another penalty and chance to move the ball though, the Seagulls again looked left. Sam Lisone acted as the trigger in the middle before McGrady provided Turner with early ball to skip to the outside of his man. Passing the ball this time, Turner found his brother Lee who shrugged off his man and sent Galeano down the sideline. Making no mistake, Galeano carried two into the corner and over the line for a 10-6 Tweed lead.

The Seagulls show no fear regardless of the game state. Where a lot of teams look to settle the game down and play with a lead, Ben Woolf’s side continues to explore the edges. If the offload is there, they will throw it and their set after points again ended with an Ipswich error deep in their own end after second-phase play dragged Tweed up the field. 

McGrady and the Seagulls needed only one play off the scrum to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Feeding the ball before wrapping around to the left side, McGrady straightened the attack, created the numbers and left his backline with a three-on-two situation which Jamayne Isaako finished in the corner.

Rinse and repeat for the Seagulls in yardage. Another offload created the second phase and Paul Turner skipped through a disjointed defensive line and into the backfield.

Again, the line break itself didn’t translate into points but the field position did. Another look to the right edge through the Turner brothers put Galeano over as the Seagulls built an 18-6 lead after only 26 minutes.

Tweed continued to build pressure through a forced dropout following Galeano’s second but Ipswich weathered the storm to finally spend some time with the ball before half-time. 

Lachlan Cooper threatened close to the line as his big right foot step beat the first defender. However, his offload ended up in the hands of the Seagulls who soon added another four-pointer through Will Brimson. The Tweed five-eighth used a magnificent Josh Patston lead to break through the line for a 22-6 lead which stuck through to half-time.