If you were a mum of an Ipswich player, chances are you would have woken today pretty happy that your first Mothers Day present was a tenacious win by the Jets.
Against all odds the Jets stood up to a rampaging Tigers, who came back to lock the game up at 22-all after being down 10-0.
The game started with local boy and Jets unsung tackling machine Sam Martin scoring his second try this year and his 19th career try after cleaning up the spilt bomb.
Marmin Barba became equal leading try scorer for the Intrust Super Cup on 11 with his try after some great lead up work by Nemani Valekapa, who gave his winger an open passage to the try line and after 20 minutes the Jets were up 10-0.
It took 25 minutes for the Tigers to get on the scoreboard when Richie Kennar showed great strength to get over the line.
Ex-Jet Eddie Tautali then split the Jets on the right hand side and broke the tackles of three players to score and lock it up at 10-all.
Dane Hogan caught Jets’ half Dane Phillips high right on half time and the Jets took the two points to lead 12-10 at the break. The Jets defence had to hold out five more sets from the Tigers in the first half.
After the break the Tigers started with Jake Foster scoring after some sneaky lead up work by Grant Giess who was scheming his way around the field in a typical half back display. The Tigers were now up 16-12.
This year the Ipswich Jets have fallen in a hole at times in the second half and it may have looked that way again until Kurt Capewell ran 30 metres to score in the corner.
The Jets retook the lead 18-16 with 30 minutes to play.
On the last tackle the Jets rolled the dice and ran the ball from 50m out; the ball passed through several sets of hands before it ended up with Capewell who scored his second try. The Jets now extended their lead to 22-16.
Easts representative hooker Tommy Butterfield had his say on the contest when he scored between the posts to give Easts a dead lock at 22 all.
Easts were awarded a penalty goal with 11 minutes to play and took the two points and the lead 24-22.
The Jets then took their penalty shot at goal and the game was back to 24-all with 10 minutes to go.
Carlin Anderson took the two points on offer to re-gain the lead for the Jets 26-24 with five minutes to go.
He was the Jets’ best two weeks ago against Redcliffe and yesterday against Easts he came up with the big play when it mattered. Josh Cleeland faded across the Tigers defence and showed the ball, then cut through to score out wide and ice the Mothers Day cake for the Jets with a 32-24 win.
IPSWICH JETS 32 (Kurt Capewell 2, Marmin Barba, Josh Cleeland, Sam Martin tries; Carlin Anderson 6 goals) def EASTS TIGERS 24 (Eddie Tautali, Richie Kennar, Tommy Butterfield, Jake Foster tries; Shaun Nona 4 goals) at North Ipswich Reserve.
Final teams
Ipswich Jets: 1. Carlin Anderson 2. Marmin Barba 3. Chris Walker 4. Nemani Valekapa 5. Brandon McGrady 6. Josh Cleeland 7. Dane Phillips 8. Josh Seage 9. Matt Parcell 21. Daniel Vidot 11. Sam Martin 12. Kurt Capewell 13. Keiron Lander (c) 22. Fakahoko Teutau 15. Kurtis Lingwoodock 16. Billy McConnachie 17. Liam Capewell
Easts Tigers: 1. Eddie Tautali 2. Richie Kennar 3. Maeli Seve 4. Michael Kai 5. Matt Duffie 6. Shaun Nona 7. Grant Giess 8. Foisa Peni 9. Tommy Butterfield 10. Liam McDonald 11. Dane Hogan (c) 12. Jake Foster 13. Troy Giess 14. Francis Tualau 15. Matthew Zgrajewski 16. Dean Britt 17. Billy Walters