Joondalup Giants 42 – Kwinana Titans 4
By PETER ROWE
Joondalup coach Matt Gowland said it was good to get their first win of the season as the Giants were simply too good in the second half for the visiting Kwinana Titans in their Round 5 Fuel to Go & Play Premiership clash at Admiral Park.
“A great team performance,” Gowland said. “Kwinana pushed us, especially the first half and that 10-minute period after the break, but a lot of hard work went into that win and I’m really pleased for the boys.”
Winger Leon White was exceptional down the right edge, setting up fullback Fraser Masterton for the opening try of the day before scoring himself six minutes after Titans player-coach Lewis Samuels had crossed for the visitors.
Interchange forward Edison Silata grabbed the first of a double on the half hour, crashing over between a tiring Kwinana defence and White scored his second six minutes before the siren.
The game was delayed for a some minutes due to an injury to Titans but the visitors more than held their own for 12 minutes of the second half, pushing and probing to close the gap.
That effort didn’t see reward as the Giants slowly regained control when centre Jordan scored the first of his double for the afternoon. And from that point the home side’s first victory of the season was never in doubt.
Russell took a superb pass from Taurean Sheehan, who was controlling the ruck superbly, to score before Steve Hanson picked off a Samuels kick, found space and offloaded to Tiger Willians, who raced away to extend the lead.
“Taurean didn’t train Thursday as he was carrying an injury but I have to credit our strength and conditioning coach Julian Eaton who didn’t a magnificent job to get him on the field,” Gowland said.
The Giants scored again three minutes from time through Silata, the big forward brushing his way through the defence on a big 10 metre run in what Gowland called a great effort.
“There were some very good performances out there, but it really was a team effort,” the coach added.
“Fair play to Kwinana. They didn’t stop playing, but it was so good get the monkey off our back. Reward for so much hard work.”