Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles have created history at Lottoland today, recording their first victory in the Intrust Super Premiership.
A strong first half performance set up the 36-18 victory over Illawarra and was a just reward for Coach Pat Weisner and his men who had been close to a win in recent weeks.
Illawarra opened the scoring in the seventh minute with a try to five-eighth Luciano Leilua for a 4-0 lead.
The Sea Eagles took the lead after 21 minutes when Jackson Hastings converted a try to centre Matthew Wright from in front of the posts for a 6-4 scoreline. A crossfield kick by Hastings saw Wright leap high to take the ball to score.
Five-eighth Cameron Cullen extended the lead when he got on the outside of his man to race 60m to score next to the posts. Hastings converted the try for a 12-4 lead after 26 minutes.
Illawarra scored their second try through winger Izaac Thompson for a 12-10 scoreline.
From there, it was all Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles with the home side running in three spectacular converted tries to Viliami Kaveinga, Peter Schuster, and Shaun Lane for a commanding 30-10 lead at half-time.
Second Half
The second half was a tight struggle with Illawarra scoring two tries to trail 30-18 after 73 minutes to set up an exciting finish.
Five-eighth Cameron Cullen closed out the match with some fancy footwork to give Blacktown their sixth try of the match.
Hooker Joey Lussick converted the final kick on the stroke of full-time to leave the score 36 - 18 in favour of the Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles.
Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles team
1 Pita Godinet (c)
2 Viliami Kaveinga
3 Pat Mataele
4 Matt Wright
14 Peter Schuster
6 Cameron Cullen
7 Jackson Hastings
8 Lloyd Perrett
9 Joey Lussick
18 Tom Amone
17 Shaun Lane
12 Jamil Hopoate
13 Jarrad Kennedy
Interchange
10 Evrett Vaurasi
11 Tyler Cassel
15 Dean Parata
19 Brendan Attwood (c)
