By Tania Phillips
After threatening it for weeks, undefeated Toowoomba Rugby League Hutchinson Builders A Grade competition leaders Warwick Cowboys finally put everything together with the eleventh-placed Oakey Bears the unlucky opposition to face them in full flight.
The Cowboys put slow starts and lapses in concentration behind them to defeat the Bears 70-nil on a cold and blustery afternoon at Oakey and further cement their place as premiership front-runners.
They went on scoring spree running in 13 unanswered tries including three in a row to Jake Speed and two each to Matthew Marshall, Morgan Burns and Ben Sullivan, who signalled he is coming back to his best after his knee injury last year. Caleb Murphy kicked seven conversions and Matthew Marshall two.
Centre Marshall opened the scoring with a try in the first minute of the game with Jake Speed, who is among the leading try scorers this year, kicking the try feast into top gear with tries in the fourth, seventy and 19-minute with Cowboys continuing the onslaught on the Oakey line until Ben Sullivan crossed for his second try in the 79th minute.
The round ten clash was an impressive way for the Cowboys to start the second half of the season with Coach Col Speed suitably pleased with his side’s performance.
“The boys put it together but more pleasing was the zero against which was great,” Speed said.
“It was a good team game, it was a credit to both sides and in particular the officials on the day that it was a great spectacle for everyone as well. Both the sides played in the right spirits which was really good.
“We got off to a good start, we have been really wary of our starts and we wanted to improve that area. The other thing we wanted to stop letting in little soft tries here and there with our little lapses in concentration.
“They really shared it around a bit. At first we thought the left edge was hogging the ball a bit and weren’t sharing it with the right edge but they shared it around and we got tries on the right edge.”
He said while it was a big team effort Ben Sullivan was one of the players who really made a difference.
“Benny Sullivan played really well, he’s coming off a serious knee injury from last year but he played really well,” Speed said.
This week they take on Brothers at home at Father Ranger Oval Warwick on Sunday afternoon at 2.30pm.
Brother’s are coming off a narrow 26-24 loss to Goondawindi at the weekend at home and currently sit on 10th spot at the moment.
“But they’ve been playing some good football recently,” Speed said indicating despite the big win the Cowboys would not take their next opponents lightly.
The Cowboys remain undefeated on the top of the ladder with a differential of 301, three ahead of Gatton on points more than 100 on differential.
COWBOYS 70 :Mathew MARSHALL 1, Jake SPEED 4, Jake SPEED 7, Jake SPEED 19, Not available 25, Mitchell WILSON 27, Mathew MARSHALL 30, Morgan BYRNE 51, Nicholas CHAPMAN 57, Benjamin SULLIVAN 63, Morgan BYRNE 68, Not available 70, Benjamin SULLIVAN 79. Conversions: Caleb Murphy 7, Matthew Marshall 2.
Oakey Bears: 0.
