Wenty made a triumphant return to Ringrose Park after enduring a gruelling 6 weeks on the road as they thumped the last placed North Sydney Bear 56-16 on a glorious, if slightly chilly, day.
The Magpies’ playing stocks were stretched thin coming into today’s game, between a mounting injury toll and key personnel getting rested for next week’s NRL clash against the Warriors. John Folau’s withdrawal did the home team no favours as they were forced to call upon Ron Massey Cup squad member, Ben Fritz to fill the hole. Holden Cup winger, Fabian Goodall moved from the right sideline to left centre to accommodate Fritz while named halfback Sam Gorman dropped back to the bench to make way for Ben Jones.
There was plenty of interest from the small but keen home crowd surrounding the open-age debut of NYC enforcer Tepai Moeroa, who was named to start in the backrow for the Magpies. The youthful hit man wasted no time in endearing himself to the Ringrose faithful as he drew appreciative gasps almost immediately after the kick off with a customarily brutal tackle that flattened a poor North Sydney prop.
Wenty raced out to a twelve point lead with tries to Taniela Lasalo and Moeora before the Bears hit back via Curtis Johnston to bring the deficit back to six points. Henry Rawalui lost the ball as he brought it out of the in goals to gift the visitors another try in the 23rd minute but it was nearly all one-way traffic afterwards.
Api Pewhairangi evoked memories of Corey Norman’s pass against the Storm as he rifled off a gem of a right-to-left ball to send Bureta Faraimo over in the left corner. Lasalo completed a first half brace with a short range barge over while Rawalui was the beneficiary of a long-range effort from Pewhairangi.
The Bears troubled the scorers one last time as Mark O’Daire scooped up a loose ball from Pewhairangi near halfway raced away to score against the run of play and at half time Wenty led the Bears 30-16.
Faraimo joined Lasalo with a brace of his own as he crossed over in the corner in the 48min on the back of a fluent movement from the Magpies before Pewhairangi strolled over for the first of his two tries. Rawalui became the third player to collect a brace of meat pies after scoring from a set move kick. Danny Howard was the next to get on the board as he crashed over in the right corner after a sweeping movement from Wenty.
Howard’s try brought up the half century for the Magpies, which was an important milestone for a team that has have struggled to put away the opposition for some time. The home team had one more try up their sleeves as fill-in centre, Fabian Goodall showed great hands and reflexes to take an attacking kick from the Bears and streak away. Although he looked to have the pace to beat the chasing defenders, Goodall linked up with Pewhairangi who just managed to ground the ball for his own two-try haul. The joy of the try was somewhat dampened by Pewhairangi leaving the field immediately afterwards due to injury.
Wenty had plenty of standout performers today with Liam Foran, Fabian Goodall, Tepai Moeroa, Daniel Alvaro, Taniela Lasalo and Bureta Faraimo all worthy of praise.
Foran, destined for the English Super league as season’s end, had the ball on a string and punished the visitors with his ridiculously precise kicking game. Playing out of position, Goodall showed moments of class in the first half before opening up in the second half and leaving the right-edge of the Bear’s in tatters. A noted finisher in the NYC, Goodall showed little hesitation in feeding Faraimo with quality ball and just as importantly – defended his edge strongly.
Lasalo, although down on form in the NSW Cup of late is no stranger to dominant efforts in this grade and thus it was Daniel Alvaro who stole the show in the front row. The young bookend, having recently progressed to the starting roster, produced his most assured game to date and was a rock for Wenty around the ruck before a severe concussion side lined him. Alvaro did return to the bench towards the end of the game and hopefully he doesn’t miss any further games due to the knock.
Finally we come to the debutante, Tepai Moeroa, who played the full eighty minutes and wowed on lookers repeatedly with excellent carries and audibly vicious tackles. The young backrower couldn’t do much wrong today and as I find myself saying so often – even with a year to go in the NYC, this kid is made for first grade. He will be flying over to New Zealand as part of the Holden Cup or NSW Cup squads next week but you could just as well draft him into the first grade squad and have no doubts that he will get the job done.
The forty point win was a massive boost to Wenty’s meagre for-and-against and ensures that the Magpies stay in outright second in the NSW Cup. Wenty will join Parramatta’s NRL and Holden Cup squads in New Zealand next week before hosting the reigning NSW Cup premiers, the Cronulla Sharks at Ringrose Park.
Feel free to ask any questions about today’s game and I will do my best to answer them!
Replies
Great summary and "call" earlier today, 40/20. Sounds like the Eels through Wenty have given a boost to Foran's confidence and perhaps his career. I hope he goes well in Super League.
I think we're going to struggle to blood more youngsters this year. We were struggling for second-tier cap space after just a few rounds.
We had to let Santi go to promote someone to a first-tier contract. I imagine we've let Loko go to do the same for someone else, but I expect it'll be a forward rather than a back, given our troubles with injuries and suspensions in the pack.
You've seen what he can do in the Holden Cup this year and he hasn't really put a foot wrong in the NSW Cup when called up. I don't know if he is ready for a long stint in the NRL but I believe he could do a 1-3 game job. Having said that, I wouldn't have tipped Pauli Pauli to be a regular fixture of our NRL squad this year but Brad Arthur has shown that he can mould and manage raw, young and talented players on the fly.
He might struggle initially when defending against the speed of attacking raids in the NRL but there are no glaring weaknesses in his game. Consummate finisher, good aerial presence and fantastic on-ball work and as he showed today, some handy ball skills. Above all he is a monstrous unit. Even amongst the sizeable bodies in the NSW Cup he stands out and would physically be able to handle the NRL, in my opinion.
I would have both Goodall and Toutai comfortably ahead of Faraimo, who is in turn a handy depth player. Toutai has progressed solidly under BA and has done an under appreciated job for us in recent weeks. Vai is very much a knock down rebuild job for the coaching staff but has the physical talents to be a good NRL player.
Goodall has a higher development ceiling and probably offers the same strengths that Vai brings to table (plus better aerial skills and hands in general) right now minus the NRL experience.
Your coverage of Wenty's game was again invaluable. No one could do it better.
Api Pewhairangi what you think about him does he go all right and do you think he play NRL one day
Pewhairangi debuted last year.
Pewhairangi is a handy squad utility player. He is able to fill in through the centres, fullback and in the halves and gives our NSW Cup team plenty of flexibility. He earned a handful of NRL caps last year in the centres but at this stage it looks like he is stuck behind a number of young players across his preferred positions and wont see first grade with us beyond a full blown injury crisis.
Pewhairangi is very over-rated.
Neither of us...
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