Defensive Masterclass Wins It For Wenty

Matt Buxton (Twitter: @MattBuxton22) nswrlThe Wentworthville Magpies have won a tight and tense contest against the Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles, elevating themselves just into the top eight.In a game where the first five tries went unconverted, defence was the theme, with the Magpies withstanding an early Sea Eagles’ onslaught that ultimately set the tone for the match.Blacktown started the game will all of the ball with great field position, constantly attacking the Wentworthville line with the ever-threatening Jackson Hastings leading the charge.However, time after time, the Magpies continually turned the Sea Eagles’ attack away, defending six sets on their line in the opening quarter of the game without conceding once.The situation was frustrating for Blacktown, made even worse when the Magpies scored off just their second opportunity on the attack. NSW under-20s Origin representative Troy Dargan put in a pinpoint cross-field kick onto the chest of George Jennings, who simply strolled over to open the scoring.The pair almost linked up for another 10 minutes later as Dargan evaded two defenders and put in a grubber for the winger that was only inches from perfect, but found touch.Blacktown finally cracked the Magpies’ stubborn defence thanks to some quick thinking from Hastings, who received a Jonathan Wright offload close to the line, and put in a smart grubber just behind the defence for Maliko Filino to pounce on.After some tight end-to-end footy, Jennings eventually broke the game wide open when he made a break up the middle of the field from inside his own half, and when he was past the last defender, nobody had the legs to catch him in his pursuit for a first half double.The conversion was the third missed for the game from both sides, meaning the half-time score read an 8-4 lead to Wentworthville.The Magpies had half a chance before the second half was three minutes old, with Marata Niukore putting in a grubber for himself, but the ball just beat him to the dead ball line.It would be Blacktown to open the scoring for the second half, however, when they quickly gained field position off the back of an offside penalty, and Peter Schuster completed a raid down the left sideline to lock the scores up at 8-all.It would eventuate that Schuster would have a polarising five minute period when he could not handle a Jeff Robson bomb, and the ball bounced into the arms Niukore, who ran to the try-line and scored untouched.A tense period followed when a minor scuffle breaking out before the Magpies furthered their lead when Cody Nelson scored off the back of a strong Siosaia Vave run and play the ball.Wentworthville Magpies 18 (G Jennings 2, M Niukore, C Nelson tries; N Davis goal) def Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles 8 (J Hastings, P Schuster tries)

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  • thanks Wile

  • The boys did well. Thanks Wile
  • I was at the game Wile and this is pretty much the "tale of the tape" as they say in boxing parlance (quite fitting today)?

    I spoke to our young up and comer Ray Stone (who had a busy time at dummy half for a while moving Cody Nelson into the backrow) when he came off with about 5 mins to go and he said "our defense won that game for us today, he and the rest of the forwards were clearly very proud of the effort the boys put in as a team. Manly threw plenty at them.

    The was a point in the first half with about 10 mins to go to halftime time when Nathan Cayless was beside himself behind the tryline after Blacktown scored, screaming out through the two-way radio to assistant coach Brent Kite, " That's 3 from 11 completions, we've just got to finish our sets between now and halftime". Our poor handling was a contributor to keeping the Sea Eagles in the game and also cost us dearly when some of our blokes dropped the ball on tackles 1 and 2 after turnovers in good field position.

    Marata, John Folau and Vave played like they should as potential first graders, ably supported by our halves Robbo and Dargan. Our big outside backs took good yards with the ball but tried to push it when they didn't need to. Overall Wenty defended well across the park and will continue to improve as we get some players back from injury in the next 3 or 4 weeks.

    • Thanks Rowdy
      Good to know Marata and Vave are ready if needed
  • That's a long tweet
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