WARILLA-LAKE South product Jesse Dee and his Queensland Rangers side have fallen in their attempt to retain the Intrust Super Cup, after going down 28-18 to the NSW Pioneers on Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Despite the match being played at Davies Park, it was NSW that opened the scoring in the sixth minute when Patrick Hollis sharply pounced on a grubber kick.
The match settled into an arm wrestle until centre Harlan Collins got the home side on the board in the 25th minute - he collected a kick that had been allowed to to bounce and muscled his in to score despite plenty of attention from defenders.
However, the rest of the half belonged to the visitors, with Queensland letting in two tries, through Alex Langbridge and Chad O'Donnell, in the final six minutes of the half to head into the break trailing 16-6.
The visitors started the second half with the same strong attacking intent that had seen gain the lead at the end of the first; but Queensland's defence was up to the task early.
Soon after, a strong run down the left edge from Tevita Folau started the hosts' attacked, which set up Tristan Hope to burst through defenders in a fantastic run before allowing him to score under the sticks.
The Caleb Daunt conversion was successful, bringing the scores to 16-12 with 32 minutes to go.
However, the momentum swung back the way of the visitors only six minutes later when Pat Mata'utia crashed over - following a courageous kick return from Fuiamamao Uta.
Pioneers' Maliko Filino then crossed out wide before the hosts responded through Andrew Petaia.
Despite the best efforts of Queensland, who were captained by Dee, to close the gap, NSW were able to hold them out and a mistimed kick from Queensland was collected by NSW and Jarom Haines went the length of the field to score the try and and land the crushing blow - sealing the 10-point win for the Pioneers.