By William Crutcher
Norths collected some treasured personal milestones without losing sight of their team goals during a successful Hostplus Cup visit to Toowoomba on Sunday.
The 42-10 win over Western Clydesdales featured individual highlights – Matthew Milson’s three tries, Ben Nakubuwai’s excellent display on his 30th birthday, Keanu Dawson’s Devils debut and Jordan Blundell’s first Cup try.
And there was the special celebration for Kololo Saitaua’s first win as a Devil – almost 12 years after he made his debut for the club.
That underpinned a team effort that extinguished the dangerous elements of the Clydesdales game, under new coaches Ben and Shane Walker, and secured the Devils’ first win of the season.
After limited possession and field position in the second half of last weekend’s opening loss to Mackay, the Devils controlled important moments in yesterday’s clash at Toowoomba Sports Ground.
After a scoreless 16 minutes to open the match, Milson broke through with a step and fend to score the first of seven team tries.
They were a mixture of tries – captain Kierran Mosseley jinked and crashed over from dummy half, Blundell reached his long arm out close to the posts and Milson zoomed over off two perfect passes from big men Nakubuwai and Jerome Veve.
Kane Rushton, pictured, scored twice – his first was a 20-metre dash after collecting Tom Rafter’s clever pinball pass from near the sideline. Rushton was only called into the Devils’ team 24 hours earlier when winger Tyreece Tait withdrew with illness.
The Devils also lost strike centre Tony Tumusa to a heel injury after 23 minutes, prompting coach Rohan Smith to reshuffle his versatile squad already missing triple premiership-winning centre Jacob Gagan (hamstring).
The Devils coped with the changes to keep the Clydesdales at arm’s length and set up a home clash with unbeaten Souths Logan Magpies this Sunday.
“Overall, it was a really pleasing team performance and that’s what you need against the challenges that the Clydesdales and the Walker boys bring,” coach Smith said.
“We took away some of their threats and we had a really connected defensive line which was pleasing. It was a nice, quick game overall.”
The Devils kept the ball in hand when in attacking position, only kicking twice in general play.
Brody Tamarua played 80 minutes in another solid hitout while Dawson, in his Devils debut after moving from New Zealand, logged 57 minutes off the bench. Rafter topped the Devils’ tackle count in a reshuffled team.
The Devils led 34-0 before the Clydesdale scored in the 60th and 77th minutes.
The Toowoomba trip provided Norths with a clean sweep after the women’s and men’s Under 19 teams defeated the Clydesdales.
NORTHS DEVILS 42 (Matthew Milson 3, Kane Rushton 2, Kierran Moseley, Jordan Blundell tries, Brandon Finnegan 7 goals) bt WESTERN CLYDESDALES 10 (Oliver Bichel, Marcus Spence tries, Christopher Woodbridge goal) at Toowoomba Sports Ground.
Photo by Alan Drinnen
