Ipswich Jets v Northern Pride at North Ipswich Reserve on Saturday, April 7 – 3pm
Ipswich Jets
1. Michael Purcell 14. Denzel Burns 3. Pio Seci 17. Rory Humphreys 5. Wes Conlon 6. Julian Christian 7. Dane Phillips 8. Tyson Lofipo 21. Kierran Moseley 10. Nat Neale (c) 11. Ben White 12. Seb Pandia 13. Ben Shea 4. Sam Caslick 9. Jayden Connors 16. Rowan Winterfield 19. Mitch Carpenter
Coach: Ben Walker and Shane Walker
Northern Pride
1. Jack Murphy 2. Murray Taulagi 3. Brett Anderson 4. Enari Tuala 5. Shawn Bowen 6. Todd Carney 7. Jake Clifford 8. Darryn Schonig 9. Ryan Ghietti (c) 10. William Bugden 11. Tom Hancock 12. Nathan Wales 13. Graham Clark 14. Connor Jones 15. David Murphy 16. Emry Pere 17. Troy Kapea 18. Jordan Biondi-Odo 19. Justin Castellaro
Coach: Ty Williams
Last time they played Round 21, 2017
IPSWICH JETS 32(Jayden Connors 2, Michael Purcell 2, Richard Pandia, Nemani Valekapa tries; Luke Capewell 3, Jayden Connors goals) def NORTHERN PRIDE 22 (Marcus Jensen, Javid Bowen, Shawn Bowen, Bradley Stephen tries; Jordan Biondi-Odo 3 goals) at North Ipswich Reserve.
HEAD TO HEAD:
Pride 11 Jets 10 and 1 draw.
ROUND FIVE, 2018.
The Pride comes to Ipswich in 2018 flying high now and confident they can get a win in Ipswich. Pride having won their first game here in 2016 since they won in 2009. Last year the Pride came away with a 32-22 loss at the Reserve. The Pride has won one game at North Ipswich Reserve in nine attempts.
The Pride has won three of their four games and is sitting in second spot. The Pride have scored 86 points and allowed 60 in defence. The Pride’s one loss this year came away to Wynnum when their game had to be moved at the last minute because of bad weather. The Pride is coming off a win over Mackay. While the Jets lost to the Capras in Rockhampton.
The Jets have two wins from four games. The Jets have scored 82 points and let past 94. The Jets have won the last three games between these two clubs.
PRIDE
The Pride have two big scalps for 2018 beating the Hunters and Blackhawks and they’d love to get a rare win in Ipswich to add to their great start to the year.
Jake Clifford.
Clifford played 22 games in 2017 for the Cowboys NYC team. He scored 10 tries and 78 goals from 111 attempts to amass 196 points. Clifford is now playing ISC for the Pride and in four games has proven to more than capable of stepping up. He is currently the ISC leading point scorer with 50 points from six tries 13 goals. He is popping up all over the field and stays alive. His short kicking game has forced six line dropouts in four games. The Pride’s first try against the Cutters was a neat little kick from Clifford. He then gets his side away to 10-0 lead when he steps back inside and scores himself. Clifford’s second try was setting up the Pride’s left and dummying through.
Todd Carney
Carney has played three games for the Pride and is settling in nicely to life as an ISC player. Carney has only made 30 tackles in three games and I would have thought making him, work in defence would be high on team’s list of things to do. Carney seems to just be sitting back and directing the team where he wants them to be. He is only averaging 17 meters a game running the ball.
William Bugden
The Pride’s big prop averages 10 hit ups a game and nearly 100m a game. Bugden has punched his way to 389m so far this year. He gets the Pride’s sets off to a great start. Bugden has made 103 tackles at 88% efficiency too. The Pride will be more confident they can inflict a loss on the Jets in Ipswich then they have for a long time.
IPSWICH JETS
The Jets had such a great win over the Tigers but then the first half against the Capras brought them back to earth with a 10-0 deficit. The Jets just did not hold the ball and missed tackles. The Jets have missed 177 tackles in four games so far this year at 44 a game.
Rowen Winterfield
Winterfield is doing an outstanding job for the Jets off the bench. Winterfield offers strength and experience. He has now played 60 ISC games and scored one try! Rowen is handy at keeping the momentum going when he comes on. He is averaging 94m per game and is contributing a big 56 minutes a game on average. Rowen pushes hard through the tackle and has 142 post contact metres.
Julian Christian
The Jets number 6 is very multi skilled, he can off load or kick for tries. Christian is leading the Jets for try assists in 2018 with two. Christian has skills and his running game is giving other players options because the defence cannot move off Christian. Christian has nine tackle breaks so far in 2018.
Wes Conlon
The Jets need Wes Conlon to recover from his finger injury. Conlon is leading the Jets with the most tries 3, goals 12 and points 36. Conlon is closing in on 400 points for the Jets and currently sits on 391 but Conlon is a lot more than just points. Conlon has 10 tackle breaks this year from 22 runs, he is a danger player that other teams watch, and he is chief of self-esteem for the Jets. Any mistake or wrong move Wes will be over slapping players on the back. He is a very vocal player that the Jets need out there. The Jets came back to earth with a first half to forget last week, after two great games. This week they can get make a statement against a team that is going well and the Jets will not want to lose at home.