Canterbury Cup Match Report: Bears v Jets

North Sydney Bears 30 | Newtown Jets 32

Bears tries: Brock Lamb, Ed Murphy, Bernard Lewis 2, Jerry Key

Bears Conversions: Brock Lamb 5/5

Jets Tries: Issac Lumelume 2, Luke Polselli 2, Siosifa Talakai

Jets Conversions: Braydon Trindall 5/5

Jets Penalty Conversions: Braydon Trindall 1/1

By Kristy Harris

Happiness at Henson as the Newtown Jets win an absolute thriller against the North Sydney Bears, their first win of the season.

Loud cheers of ‘8972’ onlookers roared through Henson Park on Saturday afternoon when the Jets resisted a Bears comeback after leading 24-0 despite the absence of key players Bronson Xerri, Kyle Flanagan and Anthony Moraitis.

Isaac Lumelume caused havoc for the Bears as he scored twice before the game was even a quarter old after some strategic play from the Jets through the middle third.

Luke Polselli was another star for the home side, scoring two tries of his own with one coming off the back of some ‘razzle dazzle’ to keep the ball alive.

Both kickers for the sides had a 100% conversion rate on the day unlike the Knights v Blacktown game earlier in the day where seven conversions were waved away from eight attempts.

North Sydney made a raring comeback in the second half after finishing the first half only 12 points behind thanks to tries by Brock Lamb and Bernard Lewis; a better position than they were when they were down 24-0.

Bernard Lewis proved unstoppable towards the back-end of the game when he broke the line twice and scored a crucial try for the Bears to lock the scores up at 30-all and set up an epic finish.

A penalty enforced with nine minutes on the clock gave the lead back to the Jets and they managed to hold on to win what was an epic first leg of the Frank Hyde Shield.