(Thanks to the QT, Claudia Baxter and Jay Buchan) ( http://www.qt.com.au/news/jets-on-a-roll/1864721/ ) WITH four first choice backs unavailable due to injury, it was never likely to be pretty for the Ipswich Jets against Tweed Heads.
But the Jets did more than enough to get the job done 16-6 at the North Ipswich Reserve yesterday.
The Jets belted the Seagulls into submission to the point it looked like the visitors wanted to be somewhere else.
There were some moments of flair from the home team as well, with two of Ipswich’s three tries following some razzle-dazzle when the ball was kept alive until the gap appeared.
“We muscled them out of the game,” Jets fullback Javarn White said.
“We came into the game with the plan to grind them out, complete our sets, get them down there and just outmuscle them.”
The Jets were inspired by captain Keiron Lander, who was in doubt in the lead-up to the match after colliding with a goal post at training Thursday.
Playing five-eighth, Lander led the way in defence, also kicking well early and providing the pivotal link in attack.
Forwards Kurtis Lingwoodock and Sam Martin, in particular, were equally brutal in their defensive intensity as the Jets regularly forced Tweed into error.
What was most impressive was not that the Jets executed their game plan so brutally, it was that they did it against a bigger forward pack. “Our forwards aimed up,” White said. “They’re not that big but they hit with a big punch.”
When Lander limped off with five minutes remaining, it was to the well-earned applause of the Jets camp.
“He played an awesome game,” White said. “Filling in at five-eighth, he can play anywhere.
“He always puts his hand up.”
The Jets hit the front in the fifth minute through left winger Troy O’Sullivan, following a backline move that involved a bit of improvisation and a wrap around.
The rain came and went, affecting the handling of both teams, though the Jets handled it better than Tweed.
Ipswich made it 10-0 in the 33rd minute when O’Sullivan got his second try, from a spilt bomb, and Brendon Marshall converted.
Tweed rarely looked like scoring, save for the one time the Jets defence dropped its guard two minutes before half-time.
It could have been the sniff that got Tweed back into the game.