Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles recorded their finest win of the NSW Cup season with a superb 36-30 victory over competition leaders North Sydney Bears today.
The ninth placed Sea Eagles produced some scintillating tries to record an upset win over the Bears at North Sydney Oval to record their fifth victory.
Centre Morgan Harper and winger Jackson Ferris combined beautifully together to score two tries each in a well-deserved win under Blacktown Workers Coach Greg Boulous that keeps the Sea Eagles in touch with the finals race.
Prolific Blacktown Workers tryscoring winger Clayton Faulalo crossed for his 13th try of the season after some slick hands to the left for a 4-0 lead after five minutes.
The Sea Eagles were in again when they sent the ball from one side of the field to the other for centre Morgan Harper to crash over in the corner for an 8-0 lead after 13 minutes.
The Bears capitalised on the Sea Eagles being left a man short after half-back Latu Fainu was sin-binned in the 14th minute when winger Tuipulotu Katoa produced a spectacular leap over full-back Jake Toby to score in the corner for an 8-4 scoreline after 16 minutes.
Blacktown Workers prop Morgan Boyle suffered a heavy collision with opposite prop Fletcher Baker that stopped play for several minutes after Boyle fell to the ground. Boyle left the field on a stretcher.
The Bears drew level when hooker Ben Marschke darted from dummy half to send lock and captain Zach Dockar-Clay over next to the posts against his former club. Ben Stevanovic converted for a 10-8 lead after 25 minutes.
It was another former Sea Eagles NRL player that was next to score when winger Alfred Smalley showed his pace to score in the corner for a 14-8 lead.
Smalley grabbed his second try with a touch of luck after the ball bounced off his head from a pass from centre Toa Mata’afa from a Stevanovic bomb for a 20-8 lead after 35 minutes.
A great offload in traffic from second-rower Josh Stuckey saw five-eighth Brad Abbey cross two minutes from half-time to leave Blacktown Workers trailing 20-14 at the break.
Stuckey was duly rewarded five minutes into the second half when Abbey sent the second-rower over next to the posts for a 20-18 scoreline.
A few minutes later, Stuckey and Norths’ forward Reuben Porter were sent to the sin bin in the 48th minute after a fight erupted.
The Sea Eagles then produced some razzle dazzle in attack with centre Morgan Harper producing a magical flick pass for Ferris to score after it all started with a great pass from Zac Fulton. Faulalo converted to give Blacktown a 24-20 lead after 54 minutes.
The Bears drew level when Smalley caught a Stevanovic short kick to cross for his hat-trick to make it 24-all with 18 minutes remaining.
A mistake from the re-start saw Harper send Ferris dive over for his second after a good offload from Josh Stuckey to give Blacktown Workers a 28-24 lead. Faulalo converted from the sideline for a 30-24 lead.
Ferris then returned the favour to Harper when he threw a great inside pass for his centre to score with eight minutes remaining. Faulalo converted from the sideline for a 36-24 lead.
Dockar-Clay stepped past Austin Dias to score his second try next to the posts for a 36-30 scoreline with two and a half minutes remaining.
The Bears threw plenty at the Sea Eagles inside their quarter inside the final minute but the Blacktown Workers defence remained strong to take victory.
Blacktown Workers team
1 Jake Toby, 2 Clayton Faulalo, 4 Morgan Harper, 20 Fletcher Myers, 5 Jackson Ferris, 6 Brad Abbey, 7 Latu Fainu, 8 Morgan Boyle, 9 Gordon Chan Kum Tong, 10 Ben Condon, 11 Zac Fulton,12 Josh Stuckey, 13 Dean Matterson; interchange: 14 Nathaniel Roache; 15 Austin Dias, 17 Jacob Sykes, 23 Denzal Tonise; concussion Sub: 18 Ryan Garner
