Match Report – Bears Lose out to Second Place Roos
The Wyong Roos overpowered the North Sydney Bears under Thursday night-lights, 6-34.
Driving down Falcon St on Thursday night was quite the sight to behold. Whether you were coming from north, south, or east it was hard to miss North Sydney Oval shining like a diamond for the Bears first game at the historic ground this season.
Next week it’s an ANZAC match up with special significance, as the Norths boys take on the New Zealand Warriors, Saturday 23rd April, 3 pm at North Sydney Oval.
It’s been described by many as the newest derby in Rugby League, Norths vs. Wyong. The battle for Northern supremacy.
It was Wyong who had early ascendancy under the oval lights. On attack, the Roos made plenty of metres up the middle and defensively were rushing upon the red and black.
It didn’t take long for Wyong to take advantage. The Ken Irvine scoreboard was called into first action of the night with electrifying Roos back Connor Watson diving over on the right flank. The try converted, to make it 0-6.
The Roos would not look back from that point. On the other end of the field, the Bears looked flustered and rushed on the attack. As the 20-minute mark rolled on Norths did begin to show signs of life. But a plaguing penalty count would hold them back, eventually costing Bears as the Roos turned a penalty into two points on the 35thminute. 0-8.
Norths were lucky to hold on. In the final 10 minutes of the half, a take from a bomb by Latrell Robinson laid the foundation for back to back penalties which saw the Bears knocking on the door to no avail. A frustrating half for the home team would stay at 0-8.
Anyone who was at Belmore last round would testify that the Norths boys are a resilient bunch and only down by 8 had a great chance. The open minutes of this half were promising, with strong goal line defence highlighted by Sitiveni Moceidreke suspending gravity, fielding a try line bomb.
Unfortunately, the Roos began an all-out offensive, starting with another penalty goal pushing the deficit to 10. Soon followed by a dive over try to Wyong’s Christopher Smith, 53 minutes into the match, converted from in front to put the Roos up 0-16.
If that wasn’t enough already for the Bears faithful, four minutes later the talented Connor Watson capitalised on a fumbled bomb to cross for a second try. Jayden Nikorima slotting over the conversion, 0-22.
A miserable North Sydney Oval got a lift with a Piki Rogers line break. Yet it was Connor Watson again breaking the hearts in the 65th minute, as he danced through the defensive line eventually finding ex-Bear Chris Centrone who dived over in the corner. The fat lady wasn’t singing yet, but the microphone was on as the conversion sailed over for an extremely convincing 28 point lead.
Chris Centrone wasn’t done there either, benefiting from a smooth back line move re-familiarising himself with the white line in the final 10 minutes. Nikorima couldn’t miss slotting over the two points from the sideline.
As they say in show business, always finish on a high. The Bears managed to run in a try on the fulltime siren as a raid down the left flank put Tautalatasi Tasi over in front of the Molly Dive Stand. Eli Levido managed to guide the conversion over from a tough angle making the final score at 6-34.
There’s no sugar coating that performance from the Bears. Wyong were all class in handling the home team with some serious talent throughout the squad, notably Connor Watson.
Next week it’s an ANZAC match up with special significance, as the Norths boys take on the New Zealand Warriors, Saturday 23rd April, 3 pm at North Sydney Oval.
WYONG ROOS 34 (try: Eli Levido, conversion: Eli Levido, penalty: Eli Levido),
defeated NORTH SYDNEY BEARS 6 (try: Tautalatasi Tasi, conversion: Eli Levido).
FINAL TEAM
1 Latrell Robinson
2 Dane Nielsen
3 Edward Murphy
18 Patrice Siolo
5 Sitiveni Moceidreke
6 Luke Kelly
7 Eli Levido
8 Anthony Cherrington
9 Bradley Deitz (C)
10 Dave Tyrrell
11 Tautalatasi Tasi
14 Toby Rudolf
13 Robbie Rochow
Interchange
15 Clayton Williams
16 Jamel Hunt
17 Brett Greinke
19 Piki Rogers
