THE Jamberoo Superoos have rebooted their premiership defence, but only after an almighty battle after downing Berry-Shoalhaven Heads Magpies 24-22 at Kevin Walsh Oval on Saturday.
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With the home side welcoming back several regulars from injury and after successive heavy losses to Warilla-Lake South and Shellharbour, but were forced to hold off a determined Magpies who definitely showed that they weren’t going to be pushovers for any of the top sides in 2018.
In fact the visitors were gifted a great start when a high bomb from Sam Burns landed on the centre of the goalpost crossbar and was dived on by Magpies fullback Blygh Herron for the game’s opening try. Josh Coulter converted for a 6-nil lead.
Jamberoo soon settled and a great right-side attack saw centre Simon Maslanka powered through three defenders to score out wide and seven minutes later winger Andrew George scooped up a dropped bomb and dived over in the corner.
Dean Watling missed both conversions, however Jamberoo had taken an 8-4 lead.
The game was turned on its head just four minutes later when Superoo’s Corey Grigg was sin-binned for dissent and from the penalty, rugged Magpies prop Bill Ryder spun out of two tackles and crashed over.
Coulter converted to snatch back the lead.
In the 34th minute, and with Jamberoo hard on the attack, backrower Magpies Rory McCall scooped up the ball and raced away before linking with Herron who sped away to score under the posts and when Coulter converted it looked like a massive upset was on the cards, with Berry leading 18-8.
Jamberoo desperately needed to respond before half-time, and with two minutes remaining, unheralded replacement forward Luke Dudgeon steamed into a hole near the tryline to score and Watling converted to close the gap to 18-14.
Jamberoo came out looking much more determined after the break and a great pass under pressure from fullback Watling gave James Gilmore a sniff of the line and he crashed over out wide.
Watling completed the job with a sideline conversion to give Jamberoo the lead 20-18.
Six minutes later the Superoos were in again when last year’s top tryscorer Ben Barnard opened his account for the season with a brilliant finish in the corner, but this time Watling was unable to add the extras as Jamberoo led 24-18.
Just when it looked like the home side had done enough, the Magpies had one more trick up their sleeves and a clever chip-kick was superbly gathered by centre James Milne who dived over in the corner, however Josh Coulter’s conversion swung wide for 24-22.
Jamberoo had to hold out against some enterprising Magpies attack in the closing stages, but were able to secure two vital competition points.
In a solid Jamberoo effort, captain-coach Jono Dallas, in his 250th grade game for his beloved Superoos, Luke Asquith, who backed up after having earlier played for the under 23s Illawarra South Coast Dragons team, Jack Loveday, Ben Barnard and Matt Webster were probably their best, while Sam Burns, Luke Ryder, Blyth Herron and Rory McCall were best for the Magpies.