HARD running second rower Jesse Douglas terrorised the defence as the Port City thumped a willing but outclassed Taree City 46-6 in the Group Three Rugby League game played on a windswept Jack Neal Oval on Saturday evening.
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Douglas smashed through some would-be tackles, particularly in the edge. Two of his three tries were long range efforts scored in the latter part of the second half. He should have also been credited with a try assist when be broke the line in the first half and sent a ball to centre Ricky Arnell with the line open. However, the usually-reliable Arnell grassed the pass.
The game ended in a lopsided scoreline, but it was more of a contest than this indicated, as Breakers coach Dan Kemp acknowledged at fulltime.
Good sides get what is known as these days as the one percenters right. Taree City invariably get them wrong, whether it is losing the ball early in the tackle count or failing to get a kick away on the last. As an example, midway through the second half the Breakers led 20-6. Taree gained possession from a Port City error and took the ball within centimetres of the tryline only to come up with a fumble in the play-the-ball.
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Port City's performance wouldn't put shudders through the teams in front of them on the ladder and for much of the game they were clunky. Kemp said this was probably due to the fact it was their first game in a month in what he described as a 'strange season.'
Consistent Richie Roberts was another Breaker to star in a two try effort that featured his trademark charges into the defence. However Taree City officials were keen to view the video of the game, concerned about an incident in a tackle involving Roberts. More may come of this.
Smart fullback Cody Robbins was dangerous in attack while winger Pat Cook didn't have a lot of work to do, but still managed to come up with two tries.
Prop Matt Taupe turned in a whole-hearted effort and he was the best of the Bulls.
"There were two periods of about 20 minutes in each half that I thought were poor from both sides,'' Kemp noted at fulltime.
"But fortunately we came out of that in the back end of both halves and scored some points.
"It's different playing this time of night. We tried to liken it to a training session. And we haven't played for four weeks, so it was a real start-again type of game for us. We thought we'd fatigue and we did a little bit when we put ourselves under pressure, but generally it was alright.''
Taree City captain-coach Trae Clark said the lack of experience in his side is apparent.
"It's boys to men out there sometimes,'' he said.
"I believe we have a good little side there, but those one percenters, we just can't nail them.''
A 40-20 kick from halfback Jake McNamara gave the Breakers field position early in the first half and soon after Roberts smashed his way over for his first try for Robins to covert.
The score remained 6-0 until deep into the half when Taree fell away and the Breakers added tries to Cook and Roberts. It was 16-0 at oranges.
Tyler Roberts scored a try soon after the resumption to increase the advantage to 20-0 before the Bulls produced their most consistent passage of the game. This resulted in hooker Oscar Carey pushing his way over from dummy half for Logan Wallis to convert.
The score stayed at 20-6 for much of the second half before Douglas cut loose for the Breakers to see the final result blow out to 46-6.