The Wentworthville Magpies have soundly beaten the Newtown Jets 22-10 at Henson Park on a wonderful day for Rugby League - in what was a crucial two points for the Magpies to keep their finals hopes alive in 2017.
The match started in fantastic fashion for the Jets, when an error by the Magpies saw Newtown regain possession and within a few tackles, a beautiful cut-out pass from Joseph Paulo hit Leigh Higgins on the chest to stroll in untouched, opening the scoring for the home side within five minutes of play.
A mountain of possession saw the momentum swing in favour of the Magpies attacking Newtown's line only to be turned away on several occasions. This would soon change in the 21st minute, however, as the pressure became too much and the Magpies found the right play for George Jennings to cross the stripe to lock things up. Nathan Davis slotted the conversion from the sideline to give his side a slim two-point lead.
Another error from Newtown in their own half gave the away side another chance to quickly increase their lead and Kirisome Auva’a would make sure of that by crashing over in the left-hand corner carrying two defenders on his back in doing so. Davis would fail to convert this time leaving the score at 10-4 to Wentworthville after 25 minutes. The scores would remain that way until half-time, with both sides struggling to amount any consistency, as both coaches would be happy to have a word to their respective sides.
The second half opened in a much more typical fashion with both sides grinding out the opening sets. Newtown finally got into the Magpies half only for a kick to go astray, and the Magpies running 96 metres to score under the sticks through Honeti Tuha and breaking the hearts of the Newtown faithful.
The Magpies seemed to put the game to bed when Jennings scored his second of the afternoon after a poor defensive effort from a cross-field kick that took the visiting side out to a 22-4 lead after the conversion was successful from the sideline.
Newtown would give themselves a glimmer of hope when Kurt Kara decided to go himself 10 out from the try line and beat several defenders to bring the score line back to within two converted tries after the conversion was successful making it 22-10.
The Magpies were able to hold off a resurging Jets side whose expansive play began to worry the Wentworthville team; however Newtown's erratic play resulted in too many errors and final passes that failed to find their mark. With not enough time to find the points necessary, the final whistle sounded, leaving the scores at 22-10 and the Magpies keeping their finals hopes alive.
Wentworthville Magpies 22 (G Jennings 2, H Tuha, K Auva'a tries; N Davis, M Woods, T Dargan goals) def Newtown Jets 10 (L Higgins, K Kara tries; B Aufaga-Toomaga goal)
