It was another massive weekend on the road for our NSW Cup team as they jetted across the Tasman to play the Warriors in Auckland. The team flew out Saturday and JT had the team doing light drills, stretches and walking footy soon after arrival. Auckland put on some good weather and many of the team were happy to back in NZ with friends and family in the crowd. It was awesome to also see so many Bears jerseys in the crowd with a number of our members coming out to cheer on the red & black. Special shout out to Craig and Dean Thompson and Tony King who joined the team in the sheds to sing the winners song!

Bears came out firing from the kickoff and Dane Aukafolau got his first of three tries via a line break within the first five minutes. The first half was quite disjointed with game paused for a lengthy period of time due to a neck injury sustained by a Warriors player. Game was restarted and Bears were on the attack again with big red, Regan Hughes, pushing his way over the line from an off-load. Jesse Marschke converted and the Bears lead 10 – 0. The game was very physical and the was paused again with five minutes left in the half with another Warriors player down. The boys went to the sheds up but still some work to do to secure the game.

Both sides returned to play in the second half with a focus on defence and fifteen minutes passed before the warriors got in the game with a converted try busting through the Bears right on the try line. It was another fifteen minutes before Bears responded with the great Dane Aukafolau making a line break and running it in next to the posts to give Jesse an easy conversion. Only minutes later, Bears were attacking again, some swift passing along the line, a falcon off a Warriors player, ball ends up in Aukafolau’s hands and he takes it over to extend the Bears lead to 20 – 6. Warriors didn’t give up and ran a long range try in with some fancy footwork to end the game 20 – 12, Bears handing the Warriors their first loss of the season and pushing the Red & Black up the ladder in 5th spot. Another awesome display of Bears grunt and the potential this team has as they find their feet as a playing group. Watch the game try highlights HERE