Western Suburbs had escaped with a one point win over North Sydney in their Round 1 clash, and with a narrow 12-10 lead at half time it looked like another close encounter was on the cards in Saturday’s NSW Cup Round 7 rematch. With winger Gus Aiga already sidelined, when young Magpie James Leuluai was stretchered off just two minutes into the second half Leo Epifania’s side was down to two fit interchanges and under the pump. At half time the coach had asked his players to deliver on a promise to raise their intensity and his charges delivered with a six tries to nil second half rout to lift the Magpies to 3rd on the table.
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Wests started the game in perfect fashion capitalising on an early penalty to score before the Bears had spent any time in possession. Magpies skipper Nathan Waters producing one of his trademark inside balls to a flying George Kepa for the try. Chris Corby slotted the extras and the Black and Whites were away. Strong defence from Wests kept the Bears under control and they were able to capitalise in the 15th minute when back rower Simon Dwyer charged through a hole in the defence created by an offside Norths player being called out of the play. Dwyer perfectly drew the Norths Fullback and sent Aiga in close to the posts. Corby’s conversion had the Magpies out to 12-0 and the Bears were staring down the barrel.
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Scrappy play from the Magpies allowed the home side back into the contest and Norths responded with two tries of their own in the 21st and 29th minutes to make the game interesting. The Watersiders should have gone to the break with a lead when great vision from 5/8 Eddie Paea to grubber and regather on the 5th had Wests defence beaten in the dying seconds of the half. Norths simply had to score, but luckily for Wests Paea’s pass was called forward and a potentially game breaking try was denied.
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With the injury woes and handling errors stifling their attack it took Wests 10 minutes of the second half to finally click into gear. The last half hour of the game however was all about the Magpies with the captain leading the way. Waters put on a masterclass to put the Bears to sleep. The rout started with the Wests No. 7 putting in a pin point accurate cross field kick on the 4th tackle to lay on a try for winger Jarek Goebel. Front Rower Andrew Pearn was in to score not long after and when Waters’ smart grubber for Dwyer had Wests up by 28-10 in the 61st minute the game was as good as over. A man down due to Greg Nichols sin binning there would be no way back for the Bears today when Waters’ inside ball to Falcone stretched the lead to 24 with 15 to play.
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To their credit the Bears kept trying, but nothing was going right for them and when Joe William’s clearing kick ricocheted off a Magpie defender into the arms of David Harris the fans were treated to one of the slowest 50 metre sprints in league history. Despite the lack of blinding pace the interchange forward was still able to hold off the cover defence and slam the ball down for the try that he deservedly celebrated in style. His interchange partner Nu Akerpia provided a fitting final act to the game with a powerful 90 metre run to score in the dying seconds.
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It had been a stirring effort from the Magpies to storm home in such a powerful fashion after seeing one of their own taken from the ground in an ambulance. Best for Wests were captain Waters who continues to shine each week, Front Rower Andrew Pearn and Lock Jamie Sharkie. The club was also pleased to hear that scans had cleared Leuluai of any serious injury although he will be out of action for a while.
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Western Suburbs 44 (Kepa, Aiga, Goebel, Pearn, Dwyer, Falcone, Harris, Akeripa; Corby 4, Sharkie 2 goals)
defeated
North Sydney 10 (Johnston, Apps; Paea 1 goal)
