The St Marys Saints again established themselves as the early season benchmark outfit of the Ron Massey Cup with an emphatic 48-10 disposal of the Concord-Burwood-Glebe Wolves in the ‘match of the round’ at Goddard Park, Concord last Sunday.
From the time prop Cowen Epere opened the scoring in the fifth minute and freakish try scoring winger Maika Sivo followed suit with his sixth try of the season two minutes later to give the Saints an early 12-nil lead, Brad Drew’s men were untroubled to remain unbeaten in four starts in 2017.
Opposite winger Andy Oughtred joined the party in the 19th minute, before former Manly centre Tony Satini and Liam Coleman – son of former Souths and Wests half Craig ‘Tugger’ Coleman – got tries late in the half to give the Saints a commanding 28-6 half time lead.
Joe Dokonivalu scored the Wolves’ only first half try in the 23rd minute.
Saints fullback Mason Cerruto killed off any hopes of a Wolves comeback with his try in the first two minutes of the second half, before Jamie Hill and Thomson Tuigamala scored further tries to blow the Saints lead out to 46-6 with 20 minutes still to play.
Cerruto landed a penalty goal with 10 minutes to play during a scrappy last quarter, before Dokonivalu got his second try to give the well beaten Wolves some consolation with five mintues left.
In an emotion charged atmosphere, the Hills District Bulls won the Nathan Gremmo Memorial Shield for the first time when they thrashed the Guildford Owls 50-6 in the other feature match of the round at Crestwood Reserve, Baulkham Hills last Sunday.
Fired up by their bumper home crowd to regain the trophy named in honour of the Bulls junior who was tragically killed in a road accident in 2015, the Bulls exploded out of the blocks with early tries to Tom Young and Tom Eisenhuth and an 8-nil lead inside the first 10 minutes.
Returning North Sydney Bears winger Abbas Miski then bagged a double playing at centre, before half Chad O’Donnell touched down two minutes from half time to have the Bulls leading 26-nil at the break.
After a grinding and scoreless first 20 minutes of the second half, the Bulls then went right on with the job in the game’s last quarter, as winger Tom Perrin scored a double in the space of four minutes to seal the Shield at 38-nil with 15 minutes to play.
Julian King got a consolation try for the Owls to get the visitors on the board, before Tim Robinson and Jayden Horogot late tries in the last five minutes to bring up the Bulls’ half century just before full time.
Two late tries in the space of three minutes saw the Wentworthville Magpies stay in the Massey Cup Top Four with a grinding 28-12 win over a game Auburn Warriors at Lidcombe Oval last Saturday.
In the return of “prodigal son” Addison Demetriou back in Warriors colours, the Magpies got going early when fullback Nick Walker got the opening try in just the sixth minute.
The rest of the half was tight where both sides had chances – ‘Wenty’ made the most of theirs when NRL Rookie runner up Jordan Martin crossed six minutes from the break to give the visitors a hard earned 12-nil lead at half time.
Magpies interchange prop Kurt De Luis extended the lead to 18-nil when he crashed over five minutes into the second half.
Power Warriors prop Mitch Mamary got the Warriors on the board his try mid way through the second half, before the Magpies sealed the two competition points with tries to winger Danny Barakat and centre Josh Minhinnick – promoted from Sydney Shield – with 10 minutes left.
Minhinnick’s try gave Wenty an unbreakable 28-6 lead, before Demetriou scored a consolation try for the Warriors with seven minutes left.
Finally, a hat trick of tries from interchange hooker Jake Attard helped Blacktown Workers / Sea Eagles score a comfortable 36-10 win over Cabramatta at New Era Stadium last Sunday.
Shrugging off a three week break from byes and washouts – plus having the match transferred to New Era just two days before kickoff when Laybutt Fields became unavailable – the Workers / Sea Eagles opened the scoring when backrower George Tsikrikas got the first try in the 12th minute.
Attard then got his first two tries in the space of five minutes from good support play to extend the lead to 18-nil, before fullback Kelepi Manu scored in the shadows of half time to give Blacktown a commanding 24-nil lead at the break.
The Two Blues – ears ringing from a blast from coach Eddie Flahey at half time – launched a comeback in the early stages of the second half with tries to winger Brent Anderson and centre Isaac Montgomery to raise Cabra hopes at only 24-10 down.
Attard completed his hat trick to snuff out the comeback at 30-10 with 20 minutes left.
Henry Wairalui then put the icing on the cake for Blacktown with 10 minutes left with the game’s last try.
Mounties and Western Suburbs enjoyed byes last weekend.
St Marys, the Bulls and Blacktown all share the lead on the Cup table with 10 points apeice - with the Saints and Blacktown remaining unbeaten.
Cabramatta are the only winless team after five rounds – and are stranded with no points on the bottom of the Cup ladder.
All four matches in Round Seven are set down for Saturday this Easter weekend, with the clash of traditional arch rivals Mounties and Wentworthville the standout contest as part of a bumper program of Easter Saturday matches at Aubrey Keech Reserve.
