Jets beaten by Sea Eagles in front of a huge Henson Park crowd
by Newtown Jets Media
The Newtown Jets are still in third place on the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup competition table, despite losing to the Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles 28-12 in the match played at Henson Park on Saturday.
The massive attendance at the popular Beer, Footy and Food Festival promotion may well have been the biggest crowd at a Newtown RLFC home game at Henson Park in more than 65 years.
The Jets now take on several teams in the upcoming rounds who are just behind Newtown on the NSW Cup competition table, including clubs such as Penrith, South Sydney and the Canberra Raiders.
The Newtown club is currently struggling to cope with a lengthy injured players list, as well as the non-availability of Sharks squad members who are back on NRL duty with Cronulla.
The Jets made a dreadful start in Saturday’s match, conceding two tries to the Sea Eagles in the opening eight minutes. It was evident from early on in the game that the Newtown forwards were going to have a real battle on their hands with the enormous Sea Eagles pack.
Newtown responded with a highly inventive try in the tenth minute, with a grubber kick by Jets halfback Niwhai Puru aimed at the Sea Eagles in-goal ricocheting back into the field of play. Jets fullback Manaia Waitere snapped up the bouncing ball and combined smartly with left-side winger Tom Rodwell, who “soccered” the football cleverly back into the in-goal where second-rower Kyle Pickering won the race to ground the ball.
Much of the remainder of the first half was a tough grind, with a 4-0 penalty count in favour of the Sea Eagles assisting the visitors down to Newtown’s end of the field on repeat occasions. The Sea Eagles had the use of a brisk southerly wind in the first half and other than Blacktown’s first try, the young Jets fullback Manaia Waitere (on promotion from the Sharks Jersey Flegg squad) handled repeated swirling high kicks with confidence.
The Sea Eagles increased their lead to 14-6 just prior to halftime, but no doubt the Jets would have been looking forward to using the wind (along with the support of the big crowd) in the second half.
Blacktown were the first to score in the second half when their powerfully-built left-side winger used his brute force to scatter several Jets defenders and score in the south-east corner.
Newtown stayed in the contest throughout the middle of the second half although the Sea Eagles had most of the territorial advantage.
The Jets struck back most effectively when Manaia Waitere flashed into the Newtown backline, made a break and sent a slick pass back inside for Kyle Pickering to race in for his second try.
Mawene Hiroti’s conversion had the Jets trailing by 18-12 with fifteen minutes left in the game. The game’s momentum was now with the Jets as the partisan crowd roared their support and Newtown worked the ball decisively down towards the Sea Eagles tryline.
A mere thirty seconds decided the outcome of the game as the Sea Eagles captain performed an audacious one-on-one strip, with the ball then being put through the hands and carried ninety metres downfield for a try underneath the Sydenham Road-end goal posts.
That try was converted, and the Eagles added more points in the 73rd minute by way of yet another stripped ball, this time right on Newtown’s tryline.
Blacktown had employed a well-considered game plan to frustrate and stifle Newtown’s ball movement and backline play, and they made an art form of the one-on-one strips at vital times. The huge crowd had been another great promotional success for the Newtown club, but the loss took some of the edge off the occasion.
The Newtown Jets travel west this Saturday evening (29th July) to play the Penrith Panthers at BlueBet Stadium (Penrith) , with this match kicking off at 5.05pm.
This NSW Cup fixture will be a curtain-raiser to the Penrith v Cronulla Sharks NRL match.
NSW Cup Highlights || Newtown Jets v Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles || Round 21 || 22nd July 2023 || Henson Park: CLICK HERE
The NSWRL Knock-On Effect NSW Cup competition table after 21 rounds: CLICK HERE
Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles (BWSE) 28
Raymond Tuaimalo Vaega 2, Jake Arthur, Morgan Harper, Kaeo Weekes, Clayton Faualo tries; Cooper Johns 2 conversions
defeated
Newtown 12
Kyle Pickering 2 tries; Mawene Hiroti 2 conversions.
Newtown’s team:
Fullback: Manaia Waitere
Wingers: Jensen Taumoepeau, Tom Rodwell
Centres: Mawene Hiroti, Trentham Petersen
Halves: Daniel Atkinson, Niwhai Puru
Lock: Brad Fearnley
Second Rowers: Kyle Pickering, Charbel Tasipale
Front Rowers: Caleb Uele, Rhys Dakin
Hooker: Jayden Berrell (Captain)
Interchange: Blake Hosking, Kurt Dillon, Tuku Hau Tapuha, Sam Healey
Coach George Ndaira.
The BWSE team:
Fullback: Kaeo Weekes
Wingers: Jake Toby, Raymond Tuaimalo Vaega
Centres: Morgan Harper, Clayton Faualo
Halves: Cooper Johns, Jake Arthur
Lock: Ben Condon
Second Rowers: Zac Fulton, Samuela Fainu
Front Rowers: Toafofoa Sipley, Ethan Bullemor
Hooker: Nathaniel Roache
Interchange: Kobe Rugless, Jacob Sykes, Austin Dias, Morgan Boyle.
Coach: Greg Boulous.
In the Mojo Homes Cup Illawarra Rugby League first grade match that was played as a curtain-raiser at Henson Park on Saturday:
De La Salle (Newtown’s partnership club) 34 defeated Western Suburbs (Illawarra) 18.
Newtown’s next match details:
NSWRL Knock-On Effect NSW Cup
Round 22
Saturday, 29th July 2023
BlueBet Stadium, Penrith
Penrith v Newtown
Kick-Off: 5.05pm.
Photo captions: Lead photo - Daniel Atkinson,
Above - Henson Park on Saturday
All photos taken by Mario Facchini (mafphotography)
