WINGHAM kicked off the Group Three Rugby League season with a 32-6 win over Port City on a heavy field at the newly named Regional Bank Australia Stadium at Wingham.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Tigers led 10-6 at halftime but three early tries in the second half opened up a 26-6 cushion the Breakers never looked likely to run down.
It was tough going for both sides in the conditions meaning the contest was in a dour slog. The Breakers had used up their eight interchanges at the 20th minute of the second half and finished with 12 players on the field with a further injury.
Port City captain-coach Tim Donovan was far from disappointed with his side's performance.
"I think there's more positives than negatives to take out of it,'' he said.
"This is our first hit out and the ground was heavy. We then had a couple of injuries and we ran out of troops.''
He said Wingham got into the grind early.
"They came here prepared today and we knew that would be the case,'' he said.
"They controlled the field and the ball a bit better than we did.
"We're certainly not hitting the panic button and we'll learn from that.''
Wingham captain-coach Mitch Collins was among the best players on show. He threw the final pass for three tries and was typically dangerous out of dummy half.
Collins admitted he was concerned at the number of penalties his side conceded in the first half.
"I thought we did pretty well to be up by four at halftime,'' he said.
Better discipline
"But our discipline was much better in the second half and it showed. The points came on the back of it.''
Collins agreed it was a scrappy encounter but said there were excuses.
The ground was heavy and because of all the rain we haven't done much ball work,'' he said.
"We knew it was going to be sloppy but we backed our defence and in the end it paid off.''
Last week Collins predicted that fullback JJ Gibson would have a fruitful season. Gibson was lively and had some clever touches of the ball against the Breaker, backing his coach's assessment.
"It's the first time he's done a full pre-season and he's been electric for us. He was massive out there today,'' Collins said.
Second rower Kyran Budd was another Tiger to revel in the conditions while follow forward Jake Mullen marked his 100th game for the club with a try. Centre Matt Bridge set up the opening try of the game within the first two minutes and scored himself in the second half.
Interchange forward Kurt Fowles returned to the Tigers after Harrington withdrew from the Hastings League and he worked hard.
The Breakers are fielding a number of newcomers this year and as coach Donovan said, they'll take a while to work combinations. Centre Sam Watts, who is still eligible for under 18s, scored a smart individual try in the first half when he beat three tackles while halfback Kyle Donovan looks a prospect.
Budd had the Tigers on the board early with a try after lead-up work by Bridge. Gibson converted. Soon after Port centre Tyrone Flanagan was given a 10 minute spell in the sin bin but the Breakers were able to stop Wingham taking advantage.
Capitalised
Winger Fletcher Lewis capitalised for Wingham after the Breakers coughed up possession deep in their territory. Lewis was given space and did well to plant the ball down in the corner for an unconverted try. Donovan landed an angled penalty goal on halftime after a minor altercation to make it 10-6 at the break.
But Wingham dominated the early sorties in the second half. Collins worked a reverse play with Aaron Groom that resulted in the prop crashing over for Gibson to convert and it was 16-6. Groom made a solid return to football after missing all of last season while he recovered from knee surgery.
Mullen crashed onto a Collins pass and worked his way over and Gibson was on target with the conversion and Wingham was in command at 22-6. Tries to Bridge and Brannon Murray rounded off the scoring for the home team.
"It's been a long time since we've beaten the Breakers by that big a score,'' Wingham treasurer Craig Martin noted at fulltime.
"I'll look forward to reading about it online tonight.''
Martin subscribes to this newspaper. Just saying.
Wingham 32 (K Budd, F Lewis, A Groom, J Mullen, M Bridge, B Murray tries, J Gibson 4 goals) defeated Port City 6 (S Watts try, K Donovan goal).
Old Bar defeated Wauchope 26-6 in the game at Old Bar.
Minor grades
League tag: Port City d Wingham 20-4
Reserve grade: Port City d Wingham 14-10
Women's rugby league: Kendall d Wingham 28-0.