Feeder teams start strongly

The Aquis Titans’ feeder teams had a great start to the Intrust Super Cup season with Burleigh Bears recording a tremendous away victory over the strong Wynnum-Manly side and Tweed Heads Seagulls getting over Easts Tigers at home.

And several of the Titans’ contracted players did well to keep pressure on Neil Henry’s winning side, who also have Luke Douglas and possibly Will Zillman and Nene Macdonald returning this weekend.

Kierran Moseley made a successful return from an ankle injury that kept him out of the pre-season trials, playing 40 minutes at hooker off the bench, and Seagulls coach Aaron Zimmerle said he was “a cut above” with some of the quality work he did.

Ryan Simpkins had his second run after missing most of last season with an ACL injury, while Matt Robinson (pictured) also worked hard as his second row partner.

The Seagulls led 6-0 early but found themselves behind 18-10 at half-time.

In the first minute of the second half fullback Shannon Walker showed his blistering speed from a Sam Irwin pass to race away 50 metres to score. Five minutes later, Shaun Carney was in after Robinson took the ball to the line, held off the defence and slipped the offload. In a blistering five-minute spell Tweed Heads had taken a 22-18 lead.

The warm weather and some rusty combinations contributed to a long flat period in the second stanza where the game drifted along, before it was sparked into life by some individual brilliance from Leva Li.

Off the back of a Woods’ burst down the sideline, Li took the pass and beat six Tigers defenders in a 60m dash to score the try that would ultimately seal the win for the Seagulls.

Along with the individual brilliance of Li and Walker, Irwin and Woods were two of the Seagulls’ best.

MEANWHILE, the Bears showed that they should be a major force in the competition in 2016 with the addition of NRL-experienced players Matt Srama, who has switched from the Seagulls, Luke Page, Sami Sauilima and Pat Politoni, plus Titans squad members Jeff Lynch and Cameron Cullen.

Cullen and Jamal Fogarty, who was a consistent performer for Seagulls last season, have quickly developed a smart and influential halves pairing on the back of a hard-working pack.

They piled on 34 second-half points in the 44-22 away win against Wynnum Manly, with a team has nine new faces.

Coach Jim Lenihan was careful not to sound too excited, however.

“As much as it’s nice to have a win, it’s still only round one; there’s still a lot of footy to be played,” he said.

“We don’t want to get too excited, but it’s nice to start the season like that and hopefully we can go in to next week and build some confidence.

“It was a good team effort. Everybody had a job to do and everybody did their job really well.”

Page barged his way over to score the Bears’ first try of the season, and Kurtis Rowe was next for them on the scoreboard, scoring from a set after Fogarty forced a repeat set with a neat short kick.

The Seagulls regained the lead when Alex Barr found open space early in second half, but from there it was all Burleigh as they scored the next 28 consecutive points, including six tries.

“Cullen and Jamal are always, constantly driving them around the park. They’re like having coaches out there. It was really, really pleasing to have a good set of halves that really controlled us,” Lenihan said.

“There was a big wind behind us in that second half, so we knew in the first half if we could just keep in touch with them and make sure we did all the hard work, that the second would be a lot easier for us.

“Once we held the ball and started turning them around we seemed to go really well and score some points.”

In the space of 18 minutes, Matt Srama, Connor Broadhurst, Darren Griffiths, Sami Sauilima and Rowe had all scored tries and blown the lead out to 38-16.

Wynnum Manly got one back through Mitch Cronin shortly after, but the Bears put the icing on the cake in the 78^th minute when Fogarty and Broadhurst combined to put Josh Berkers in for the final points.

TWEED HEADS SEAGULLS 28 (Blake Anderson, James Wood, Shannon Walker, Shaun Carney, Leva Li tries; Nathanael Barnes 4 goals) def EASTS TIGERS 24 (Brent Warr, Jake Foster, Ashley Little, Shane Neumann tries; Billy Walters 4 goals) at Piggabeen Sports.

TWEED SEAGULLS: Shannon Walker, Leva Li, James Wood, Shaun Carney, Nathaniel Barnes, Sam Irwin, Michael Burgess, Will Bugden, Sam Meskell, Togitasi Tuiala, Ryan Simpkins, Matt Robinson, Sam Saville. Interchange: Kierran Moseley, Dane Clarke, Cory Blair, Blake Anderson.

BURLEIGH BEARS 44 (Kurtis Rowe 2, Luke Page, Matt Srama, Connor Broadhurst, Darren Griffiths, Sami Sauilima, Joshua Berkers tries; Jamal Fogarty 5, Tyler Chadburn goals) def WYNNUM MANLY SEAGULLS 22 (Daniel Wallace, Patrick Templeman, Alex Barr, Mitchell Cronin tries; Mathew Seamark 3 goals) at BMD Kougari Oval.

BURLEIGH BEARS: Tyler Chadburn, Kurtis Rowe, Sami Sauiluma, Connor Broadhurst, Oliver Regan, Cameron Cullen, Jamal Fogarty, Luke Page, Matt Srama, Paterika Vaivai, Jamie Dowling, Hayden Schwass, Jeff Lynch. Interchange: Pat Politoni, Darren Griffiths, Josh Ailaomai, Josh Berkers.

POINTS TABLE AFTER ROUND 1

NEXT WEEK’S GAMES