Shrugging off the absence of star recruit Feleti Mateo, the Hills District Bulls moved to sole leadership of the Ron Massey Cup with a solid 28-20 win over the Concord-Burwood-Glebe Wolves in their match at North Sydney Oval last Sunday.
After a tight first 10 minutes, the Bulls got on top with tries to wingers Aaron Weston and Tom Perrin to take a 10-nil lead after 20 minutes.
Giant Wolves backrower Kem Seru got the Wolves on the board with a barging try, before Bulls interchange back Jaz Flavell crossed eight minutes from half time to extend the Bull lead. Jayden Horo landed a penalty goal in the shadows of half time to give the Bulls an 18-4 lead at the half time break.
A try to winger Jeremy Safi eight minutes into the second half gave the Wolves of hope of a comeback at 18-10 after Rhys Davies converted.
However, a brace of tries in the space of five minutes from returning North Sydney Bears centre Abbas Miski midway through the second half put the Bulls out of sight at 28-10.
Wolves winger Harry O’Toole got a late double in the last five minutes to make the final score respectable for the Wolves.
The St Marys Saints returned to winning form with a dominant 30-4 win over Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles at St Marys Leagues Stadium last Saturday evening.
After an early arm wrestle for the first 20 minutes, prolific winger Maiko Siva opened the scoring with his first try, and turned that into a double by half time to stay on top of the Massey Cup try scorer’s list with eight majors for the year to date in just six games played.
Hooker Shanan Wood scored between Siva’s double to give the home side a commanding 18-nil lead, before Blacktown centre Shaun Fitzgerald got the Workers / Sea Eagles on the board in the shadows of the interval with a try wide out on the right to have the Saints leading 18-4 at the break.
The Saints extended their lead when five eighth Aiden Glanville scored five minutes into the second half to virtually make the task impossible for the visitors at 24-4, before Brad Drew’s men ground their opponents down in restricting the Workers to a scoreless second stanza.
Adrian Davis landed a penalty goal midway through the second half, before prop Josh Butfield finished off the win when he crashed over wide out with 14 minutes left.
The Guildford Owls proved that their big win over St Marys last week was no fluke when they edged out Western Suburbs 16-14 at Leichhardt Oval last Saturday.
In a contest that was in the balance throughout, Owls winger Cameron Eyles finished off a left side raid to open the scoring in the 20th minute, before Magpies winger Tom Capper finished off a Wests right side move of their own six minutes later to level the scores.
Magpies hooker Luke Williams scored a superb solo try on Wests’ next attack three minutes later to give home side the lead, before Guildford back rower Dylan McKeown dived over from close range on the stroke of half time to level scores at 10-all at the break.
A Wests error in the first set of the second half opened the door for Shane Hunt to score without a hand being laid on him to give the Owls a 16-10 lead with Jake Carlow’s conversion.
A superb 40-20 kick from Wests half Brendan Waters saw winger Jerome Mose score in the left corner with 15 minutes left to bring the Magpies back to within two points.
However, Guildford’s defence – as was the case against the Saints – held out the Magpies attack in the closing stages to clinch their win.
Two time defending premiers Mounties returned to winning form with a convincing second half to dispose of a disappointing Auburn Warriors 42-20 at Belmore Sports Ground last Saturday.
Mounties came out blazing with early tries to centres Josh Toole and Jake Steadman, as well as winger Shannon Chapman to give the visitors a 14-nil lead after just 15 minutes.
A try, conversion and late first half penalty goal from classy centre Addison Demetriou brought the Warriors back to being down only 14-8 at the break.
In a cracking start to the second half similar to their opening first 20 minutes, Mounties extended the lead to 30-8 after just 10 minutes of the second half thanks to tries to five eighth Maurice Kennedy, backrower Fou Tagiilima and winger Alofi Mataele.
The Warriors rallied midway through the second half when winger Adham El-Zbaidieh scored in the corner, before Demetriou completed his double to have Auburn back to with in 10 points with 20 minutes to play.
The Mulga then came home over the top of a tiring Warriors defence when Steadman sealed the win with second try with 10 minutes left, before half Brad Speechley made sure of the win for good measure with the game’s last try with eight minutes to play.
Finally, the Wentworthville Magpies sent the Cabramatta Two Blues crashing to their eighth straight loss to start the season with a comfortable 34-12 win at Ringrose Park last Sunday.
After both sides played out a scoreless first 20 minutes, the Magpies opened proceedings when prop Taniela Lasalo crashed over from close range in the 21st minute for the first try.
Two Blues winger Brent Anderson finished off a neat left side raid to level the scores six minutes later, before a brace of tries from five eighth Zac Nicholls pushed the Magpies out to an 18-6 lead at half time.
The Magpies then put Cabramatta to the sword to start the second half. First, centre Josh Minhinnick continued his superb try scoring record in the early part of the season whn he posted his 13th try for the year in just eight games across all grades to extend the lead.
Then interchange prop Kurt De Luis put Wenty virtually out of sight at 30-6 just 10 minutes into the second half when he plunged over to score.
In a lacklustre last half hour, Cabra five eighth got the Two Blues’ second try with 10 minutes left, before NRL Rookie runner up Jordan Martin finished the game off with a neat finish in the corner in the final minute.
The Bulls win sees them as sole leader on 14 points, two points clear of St Marys, Blacktown Workers and Wentworthville who are all on 12. The hapless Cabramatta remain anchored to the bottom of the ladder from their winless first eight starts.
Just two matches are set down for this weekend in a reduced round – first Auburn and Western Suburbs play their postponed Round Three match at Lidcombe Oval on Saturday at 2pm
The weekend’s other game sees the Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles do battle with Concord-Burwood-Glebe at Laybutt Fields, Blacktown on Sunday at 1pm as the main curtain raiser to Intrust Super Premiership NSW match between the Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles and Penrith.
