Round 5 Sunday wrap: All smiles as Cutters go top with giant win
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Mackay Cutters survived a first half challenge from Western Clydesdales to record their highest points tally in a match with a 52-14 win.
At Toowoomba Sports Complex, the home side controlled the opening half hour of the game - including a period when both teams were down to 12 men due to separate infringements - and held a 14-4 lead.
From there it was all Cutters, who scored three tries in seven minutes before half time and another five in the second half.
Mackay Cutters coach Michael Comerford said poor discipline in defence was costing his side opportunities in attack, but was pleased to see panic never set in.
"Our attack in the first half was pretty good, it was just our discipline in defence costing us possession and field position," he said.
Match: Clydesdales v Cutters
Round 5 -
home Team
Clydesdales
15th Position
away Team
Cutters
3rd Position
Venue: Toowoomba Sports Ground, Toowoomba
"We were pretty confident that if we were able to get a 50-50 share of the ball, we had some points in us, but we just had to be patient and to be fair, the boys were.
"The Clydesdales early on were holding the ball well and moving it well and exposed us a couple of times, but back end we just showed if we've got the ball, what we can do with it.
"It's what it needs to be from the start rather than the second half in the weeks to come."
Comerford praised halves Riley Dean and dual tryscorer Kauri Aupouri-Puketapu for responding after being unable to get the job done the week prior against the Blackhawks.
"We challenged them during the week off the back of a performance we weren't happy with last week against the Blackhawks and they stood up and steered the ship and I think that was a big factor in scoring as many points we did," he said.
The real highlight for the Cutters was the debut performance of Jaxon Purdue, the 18-year-old halfback coming off the bench into the middle and scoring a 63rd minute try.
"I was very confident that he'd more than be up to the standard of Hostplus Cup and we saw a glimpse of that in the preseason with the Cowboys," Comerford said.
"We're very proud Jaxon has come through our junior pathways and had a really breakout couple of years at St Patrick's College in schoolboys' competition, so I'm selfishly very happy and proud we were able to give his debut today.
"There were plenty of questions to me during the week around 'would he handle going into the middle' and one thing I can say as a coaching staff and a team we were very confident what he would bring and in one training session last night he showed pretty quickly he would add something in attack in particular and I thought he did a great job defensively."
Match: Jets v Bears
Round 5 -
home Team
Jets
11th Position
away Team
Bears
8th Position
Venue: North Ipswich Reserve, Ipswich
Ipswich and Burleigh traded tries for the first hour before the Bears broke away for a 10-point win at North Ipswich Reserve to finish the round.
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