South Perth Lions 42 – North Beach Sea Eagles 12
By PETER ROWE
The Lions roared again in a solid first performance at George Burnett Park as they jumped to a 30-0 lead against the North Beach Sea Eagles in their Round 5 Fuel to Go & Play Premiership tussle.
But the never-say-die attitude of the visitors saw the second half even out with both sides scoring two tries apiece.
“We took our foot off the gas a bit in the second period and let them back in but by then I think we had the game won,” coach John Crawford said.
“We played really well in the first half and defended well, but we’ve got to play for more than 40 minutes, 60 would be nice,” he joked.
Key to the gameplan were three players voted best on field – Luke-David Wells-Talamaivao, Eddie Proudler and Jimmy Elliott.
Elliott, now in hs late 30’s, is excelling in the forwards and helping to set the platform for Proudler and Hohepa Taiatini in the halves.
“Jimmy’s effort was massive,” Crawford said. “And Eddie is such a calm figure out there managing everything – his kicking was awesome.”
Wells-Talamaivao at lock played a superb ball-playing role to emerge a winner. “He has so much energy at 13, it really works for us,” Crawford added.
Mathius Tomuli-Ah-Kuoi was also outstanding getting the player’s player of the day vote.
Back-rower Hamish Rohan opened the scoring before fullback Kade McDonald added a second.
Wells-Talamaivao was next to cross and then veteran Daniel Green and Taiatini finished the first half.
Big centre Corban Daniels and Tomuli Ah-Kuoi were the Lions’ only second half scorers.
For North Beach winger Riley Bradley and his inside centre Brayden Warley pulled back two tries early in the second forty but it wasn’t enough.
Beach coach Marty Collis said his side made way too many errors in the first half.
“We stemmed the tide in the second period and I think the score was 12 apiece, but the first half really hurt us.
For the Sea Eagles the result saw them drop to the bottom of the ladder, still winless this season, with one point (at Joondalup) and a bye from their games so far.
“We couldn’t get out of our red zone for much of the first half,” Collis admitted.
“And we were unable to run in pairs when we had the ball.
“South Perth had very good line speed and they capitalised on our many mistakes.
“We are still winless but we all understand where we are at and we know we are better than what our results show.”