TEA Gardens Hawks hosted Raymond Terrace Magpies in a ‘Battle of the Birds’ at Myall Park on Saturday 5 April.
From the first kick, the Hawks’ pre-season work was evident, as James Sinclair’s boot sent the ball bouncing over the back line, untouched, setting up a line dropout and re-gaining possession immediately.
The Hawks’ initial attack was strong, and was rewarded with the first try of the season to Brendan Nowland, and first conversion to James Sinclair.
The Hawks’ dominance was curtailed by a Magpies swoop down the left wing and into the goal zone, which served as the same avenue for the Magpies’ next two tries.
Many meaty tackles kept the ball around the midfield, until the Hawks’ Jyle Donovan found it and ran up most of the field to swoop in from the wing and return the favour.
The Hawks’ third try came from some excellent passing, as the Hawks swept up and down the tryline, dodging tacklers out to left wing to score again.
But it was too wide for the conversion.
James Sinclair’s starting kicks proved very helpful, but the Magpies ratcheted up their defence, pushing the ball back, sometimes up to 90 metres, and penetrating for another try in the last few minutes of the first half.
The second half started with a spark for the Magpies, first scoring within two minutes, but one more Hawks’ try and conversion seemed to keep them in the game.
Inevitably, knock-ons led to perfunctory scrums, tediously arresting momentum for the spectators, but the tackles grew vicious as the body-on-body thumping led to sin-binning.
Raymond Terrace seemed to pull away in the last 15 minutes with a series of unanswered tries and many easy conversions, cranking up the score over 50 points while the Hawks languished on 22.
Full-time score: Hawks 22 to Magpies 54.
Four tries to the Hawks: Brendan Nowland, Jyle Donovan (2) and Connor Tincknell.
Ten tries to the Magpies: Caden Taylor (2), Jake Atkins, Riley Hunter, Joshua Hannaford, Harper Such, Jackson Saville, and Nathanial Jarmain.
Conversion kicks: James Sinclair for the Hawks and Caden Taylor for the Magpies.
By Thomas O’KEEFE
