THE Ipswich Jets doubled their Queensland Cup win tally for the season with a scrappy 18-8 defeat of Burleigh at the North Ipswich Reserve on Saturday.
The Jets rarely appeared under threat from the winless Bears.
However, the home side seemed intent on doing all they could to invite their rivals into the game with repeated errors and penalties conceded, including a string in their own 20m area.
To Ipswich’s credit, every time the Bears had the ball in attacking positions the Jets would force them into error and did enough to get the much needed victory.
“It was a tough win,” Jets five-eighth Brendon Lindsay said.
“We made it hard for ourselves.
“But in the end it was good to grind out a win.”
It looked like being anything but a grind.
After kicking on the first tackle from a scrum and almost scoring, winger Ramon Filipine made sure of it soon after, crossing in the corner.
The conversion gave the Jets a 6-0 lead after six minutes.
Hooker Ian Lacey was busy smashing anything in a Burleigh jumper he could get his hands on while Filipine was mixing tries with grinding out metres off his own line.
Centre Donald Malone showed his class most times he touched the ball, but ruined it with a poor option at the end of a good run on more than one occasion.
It became symptomatic of the Jets when errors took over as they were forced to defend repeated sets on their own line.
Pressure eventually told as Burleigh scored to make it 6-4 midway through the half when giant prop Brenton Lawrence charged over.
Replacement hooker Michael Fisher gave the home team some breathing space when he surged over from dummy half seven minutes before the break but Burleigh pulled it back with a try from a bomb just before half-time to reduce the deficit to 12-8.
The second half followed a similar pattern to the first, with neither team reaching any great heights.
But the longer it went the less likely it appeared that Burleigh would be leaving with any points.
When Filipine grabbed his second try with less than 10 minutes remaining, it was as good as game over.
“Rugby league is a game with a lot of luck in it,” Lindsay said.
“We’ve been down on it.
“But we knew if we kept working hard, we’d get a bit of luck.
“We didn’t play perfect but we got the win.
“It wasn’t pretty.”
Lindsay was encouraged by the return of the team’s tough, competitive edge in the tight situations.
“At times in games, we’re letting teams off the hook,” Lindsay admitted.
“We’ve got to learn to be more ruthless in the arm wrestle.
“Today we did that.”
Now they know they can grind out a win, be it against the bottom team on the ladder, the Jets just have to prove they can put on points when they get the chance.
Lindsay conceded “fixing our mistakes” was a big focus heading into this weekend’s bye, which is followed by an away clash with Souths Logan.
“We know we can beat teams,” Lindsay said.
“I think we’ll be there in the end.”
STATE OF PLAY
Ipswich Jets 18-8 defeat of Burleigh was their second win of the season, returning them to mid-table respectability.
The win was based around the Jets’ defence, with Burleigh failing to take the opportunities handed them by Ipswich’s mistakes and ill-discipline.