2003_16_Wrap

A blustery North-Westerly favoured Springwood in the first half of their Preliminary final against Redcliffe at a firm and fast Kookaburra Park on Sunday. After a tight opening 10 minutes, Springwood exploded with two quick tries, the first to Matt Reynolds when the ball was spread wide on the 5th tackle and the second to Daniel Isaac after the Redcliffe defence failed to regroup after a "held-up" call, to give them a 10-0 lead midway through the first stanza. Redcliffe started to make inroads into the Tigers and struck back when big Leifa crashed through a number of tackles to score a converted try after 21 minutes. The five minutes either side of half-time were disastrous for Springwood. Firstly they lost their main strike weapon Daniel Isaac with an ankle injury, and then saw Redcliffe put on two tries, the first another smashing effort by Leifa to give the Dolphins a 12-10 halftime lead, and the second to Matt Gillett after some good lead-up work by Tim Gee. Jed Fuller's third conversion for the day then strtched Redcliffe's lead to 8 points and the Tigers certainly looked to have some work ahead of them. They steadily worked their way back into the game however, and after some desperate defence on their own line, a neat chip and regather from tiny winger Ashley Karklis saw the margin narrowed to 4 with 18 minutes to play. Only 2 minutes later, Springwood were in again courtesy of a weaving run from dummy half Nathan Strudwick with Ben Edwards conversion putting them back in the lead. In Redcliffe's desperation to score saw them make a number of fundamental errors, gifting Springwood with possession and field position and with 10 minutes remaining big Sa crashed over in the corner to take the lead to 6. Ben Edward's brilliant conversion from the sideline in the blustery conditions then gave the Tigers some breathing space. Redcliffe did not give up the fight, but the combination of solid Springwood defence and despicable handling - they only completed 1 of their last 9 sets - saw the Dolphins go down 26-18 and Springwood advance to next Satuday's Suncorp Stadium showdown with Norths. For the winners, all the forwards played well, with Nathan Strudwick and the 3 backrowers outstanding. In the backs Matt Smith played well in his first game back from a broken wrist, as did Quentin and Ashley. Matt Reynolds was also solid in attack and defence. For Redcliffe, Leifa was outstanding up front, well backed up a forward pack who never stopped trying. Angus, Tim Yee and Matt Gillett played well and often had the Springwood defence guessing. Overall it was a very entertaining game, played in great spirit.

Minute by minute:

11th min: Matt Reynolds try/Ben Edwards conv; Springwood 6-0

15th min: Daniel Isaac try; Springwood 10-0

21st min: Leifa try/Jed Fuller conv; Springwood 10-6

26th min: Leifa try/Jed conv; Redcliffe 12-10

FIRST HALF STATS: Penalties: Redcliffe 4-2; Completions: Springwood 8/12 (66.7%); Redcliffe 12/15 (80.0%)

36th min: Matt Gillett try/ Jedconv; Redcliffe 18-10

42nd min: Ashley Karklis try; Redcliffe 18-14

44th min: Nathan Strudwick try/ Ben conv; Springwood 20-18

50th min: Sa try/Ben conv; springwood 26-18

SECOND HALF STATS: Penalties: Springwood 4-1; Completions: Springwood 11/14 (78.6%); Redcliffe 5/13 (38.5%)

TOTAL STATS: Penalties: Springwood 6-5; Completions: Springwood 19/26 (73.0%); Redcliffe 17/28 (60.7%)

Brad T

13/9/2004