Read up on all of Saturday’s results from the first week of finals in the Sydney Shield and Ron Massey Cup.
Brothers survive in extra time thriller
Penrith Brothers produced a thrilling extra-time victory to beat the Sydney Roosters 20-17 in Saturday’s Sydney Shield Elimination Final at Leichhardt Oval.
Both sides battled for half an hour with no points scored until the Roosters took advantage of a 20m restart. When Brothers halfback Jared Farkas misjudged a grubber over the dead-ball line, Roosters winger Denzil Manu came back for the quick tap and made a strong run to halfway.
Then some great combination work on the ensuing play saw five-eighth Jack Smith throw an inside ball to captain and fullback Rob Miller, with the No.6 backing up to score under the posts and convert his own try.
That wasn’t the end of the scoring in the first half as Penrith started to build momentum, spending several sets in the opposition 20. With just over a minute until the main break and metres shy of the line, front-rower Brandon Nasio charged onto a Warren Smith pass and crashed into three defenders to score beneath the uprights. Farkas converted to even the ledger.
Brothers started the second half with another four-pointer in what was near identical to the first. The Roosters were defending on the goal-line in the 44th minute when Warren Smith found a rampaging Nasio next to the post padding yet again, and suddenly Brothers led 12-6 after Farkas added the extras.
The Roosters had plenty of possession and quality field position for the next 15 minutes and eventually reaped the rewards, as Manu caught the ball with work to do before bumping off Tori Willie and Tyran Pettit-Young on his way to the try-line. The Roosters then trailed 12-10.
Penrith extended the lead with their third try a few minutes later, this time through winger Joshua Smith, yet Farkas was unable to kick the goal to go beyond a converted try.
With five minutes remaining the Roosters were staring down elimination, but it was the individual brilliance of five-eighth Smith who dummied not once, but twice to stroll over the stripe then kick the conversion to equalise at 16-all.
With the game headed to 10 minutes of extra time, the Roosters received the kick-off and worked their way upfield before centre Tevita Masima slotted a field goal.
Despite being a man down after a dangerous tackle just before half-time, Brothers found themselves on the attack in the dying stages and Joshua Smith touched down in the corner. The Roosters couldn’t retrieve the kick-off restart as Brothers held on for the 20-17 win.
Dominant victory earns Bulls a spot in Major Semi-final
The Hills District Bulls scored seven tries on the way to a 38-8 win over Ryde-Eastwood Hawks in the Sydney Shield Qualifying Final on Saturday afternoon.
Tensions were high early on in the contest after a pair of Ryde-Eastwood players were sin-binned for their involvement in a dangerous tackle. With a two-man advantage, the Bulls wasted no time to open the scoring when centre Declan Murray dived over at the left corner in the seventh minute.
The Bulls were in again six minutes later when five-eighth Dion Narayan threw a pinpoint cut-out pass for winger Viliame Kuli to score. Halfback Mitchell Hyde converted for a 10-0 lead.
The Hills side followed up with two more quick-fire tries through back-rower David Baumann – charging his way over the try-line in the 22nd minute – and Declan Murray, who scored his second at the half-hour mark after Hyde put him through a gap from close range.
Bench forward Mohamed Soultan then added to the margin in the 37th minute when he caught a late offload to score beside the posts.
The Hawks eventually hit back on the scoresheet at the stroke of halftime, with five-eighth Nicholas Ferris throwing a brilliant floated pass to Kai Brady for a try in the left corner. Ryde-Eastwood trailed 26-4 at the break.
Early in the second half the Hawks shortened the margin again with a try courtesy of fullback Mason Ward, but that would be their last try for the afternoon before the Bulls ran in two more of their own.
Kuli secured a double while Murray bagged his hat-trick, and No.7 Hyde finished the match with five from eight off the boot including one penalty goal to round out the 38-8 final score.
Late flurry of tries secures victory for Dirty Reds
The Glebe Dirty Reds have come away with a 28-18 win over the St Mary’s Saints in the Qualifying Final of the Ron Massey Cup on Saturday.
Within two minutes Glebe broke into the backfield to send winger Michael Pearsall in to score on the left touchline, but St Mary’s responded quickly when five-eighth Anthony Layoun snuck over from dummy-half. Halfback Zac Greene converted to take a 6-4 lead.
Greene later extended the lead to four points with a penalty goal, but the Saints pushed the margin even further to 12-4 when former Penrith Panther and Wests Tiger Geoff Daniela scored in the 31st minute.
The Reds weren’t done before half-time when they jagged another try through No.14 Jackson Stewart. Halfback Eli Levido added the extra two to bring the score at the break to 12-10.
It became a to-and-fro contest in the second half when Riley Travers raced away to score from a loose ball, before the Saints scored again in their next attacking set through hooker Luke Sommerton. And despite Greene nailing the conversion to gain an 18-16 lead, the momentum was with the Reds for the remaining 20 minutes.
Glebe went on to score two more tries via fullback James Coyne and centre Jackson Ferris, with Levido converting each of them on the way to a 28-18 victory.
Strong finish helps Magpies to Elimination Final win
The Wentworthville Magpies ran away late in the piece for a 24-14 win against Mounties in the Ron Massey Cup Elimination Final on Saturday night.
Mounties opened the scoring in unlikely fashion five minutes into the match, as lock Matthew French charged down a midfield bomb and ran all the way under the sticks, before Liam O’Brien converted for the 6-0 lead.
The match-up became a defensive struggle for the next 25 minutes, but at that point the Magpies finally scored their first points through fullback Clayton Faulalo. Wentworthville then added to their tally just before halftime when back-rower Kyle Cassel caught the bounce from halfback Nicholas Tilburg’s kick and offloaded back to his No.7 to score under the posts. O’Brien’s conversion handed his side a 12-6 advantage at the break.
The second half was similar to the first with points at a premium early on, yet Mounties had to be next to score and were, this time with a try for Valance Harris in jersey 21.
By the 70-minute mark both sides were only able to add to their scores with a penalty goal, and in the final minutes they were locked at 14-all.
But from that moment on the Magpies found an extra gear to produce a pair of four-pointers, with winger Joshuah Minhinnick crossing over and Faulalo scoring his second try of the evening.
O’Brien finished with eight points off the kicking tee as Wentworthville came away with the 10-point win, booking a meeting with St Mary’s on Saturday 20 August.
