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Competition - NSW Cup
Round - 20
Teams – Mounties V Warriors
Date –  23rd of July 2016
Venue – GIO Stadium
Photographer – Cox
Description –

Mounties have recorded the most incredible comeback victory of 2016 with a 30-28 victory over the Wests Tigers, having trailed by 22 points at half-time.

Jacob Liddle led the charge for the Wests Tigers scintillating opening stanza, but not many people could have predicted what was to come in the second half.

Mounties were stacked with the likes of Shaun Fensom, Paul Vaughan, and Jeff Lima, and that experience got them over the line in the end in what was a remarkable victory for the club.

Vaughan was rewarded for an outstanding match with the Intrust Super Premiership NSW player of the match award.

Mounties shifted to the dangerous edge of Kato Ottio on three occasions in the opening 13 minutes, but each time he was agonisingly short of the line. In particular the third try, where he had done all of the hard work, but Michael Chee Kam made an amazing cover tackle to dislodge the ball. 

Liddle put Wes Lolo away for a line-break off the back of a penalty, which put the Wests Tigers in great field position. Off the ensuing set, he picked the ball up from dummy half, dummied left, darted away, dummied right and scored under the posts through a massive hole that he created with his fancy footwork.

The Wests Tigers extended their lead thanks to a wonderful try, when Littlejohn put in a perfect cross-field kick in when drifting to his right, and Charlie Taylor soared above the pack to take the ball and plant it down in the corner.

Sam Williams forced a dropout with a neat grubber, which led to Ottio finally bagging a four-pointer after coming so close before, thanks to a beautiful long ball by ever-threatening fullback Zac Santo.

An amazing try Wests Tigers try followed thanks to a Mounties error in the act of scoring. Santo knocked the ball out of Littlejohn’s hands, planted the ball down and claimed a try. The referee ruled Santo knocked on, and before the Mounties knew it, Addo-Carr was supporting for the quick 20-metre tap, running 80-metres for a try.

Rod Griffin finished off a series of passes up the middle with a big run off the kick-off set, and Watson Heleta burrowed his way over on the very next tackle, extending the Wests Tigers lead to 22-6.

Momentum is a tough thing to stop in Rugby League, and the Mounties learned this first hand when on the stroke of half-time, Liddle threw an offload to Jeremy Marshall-King, who danced his way through the defence to score.

Mounties needed to be the first to score after the break, and after multiple attacking sets, Alofi Mataele touched down after beating various defenders on his way to the line.

Only moments later, they were back in the game when Sam Williams fractured the defence by holding up a ball to Brenko Lee, who double pumped for Ottio to score his 22nd try of the season.

They then reduced the deficit to 28-20 when a third tackle shift led to a Jarrad Kennedy line-break, who threw an amazing Matt Gidley-like flick pass for Lee to run away and score.

Curtis Sironen went incredibly close to a try for the Wests Tigers, but Mounties went down the other end of the field, and Maurice Kennedy jumped on a perfect Williams grubber right under the posts.

The most amazing comeback of 2016 was sealed after Scott Sorenson made an important line-break, and the defensive line did not recover as a few tackles later, Jarrad Kennedy sealed the match by busting through for a try.

It was an amazing game of Rugby League that re-defined the fact that it is certainly a game of two halves. 

Acknowledgement of Country

New South Wales Rugby League respects and honours the Traditional Custodians of the land and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future. We acknowledge the stories, traditions and living cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on the lands we meet, gather and play on.

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