Mounties have scored a comprehensive victory over the Canterbury Bulldogs in their round 17 VB NSW Cup match at Belmore Sports Ground on Saturday.
Mounties got off to a fast start when Jeremy Hawkins sliced through the defence close to the line to open the scoring with Mounties leading 4-0 after the missed conversion.
In the 10th minute Hawkins grabbed a second try when he pounced on a Ryan Carr grubber near the right upright and this time Matt Place had an easy conversion to make it 10-0.
Sami Sauiluma celebrated his return from injury when in the 20th minute he was on the spot to clean up a grubber kick from Carr that was spilt by the Bulldogs fullback and with Place able to convert Mounties jumped out to a 16-0 lead at the quarter.
Mounties then made several errors attempting to put more points on the board and in the 29th minute the weight of possession to the Dogs allowed them to pressure Mounties line and some ordinary missed tackles saw the home team score to make it 16-6.
To their credit, Mounties went back to their structure and in the 33rd minute an attacking raid put enough pressure on the Dogs line to allow Carr to burrow under the two defenders and plant the ball on the line for a four pointer, the conversion by Place making it 22-6 and in the 37th minute it was Place who did it all himself when he grubbered to the in-goal and was able to dive on the ball before the Dogs fullback could arrive to make it 28-6 at the half time break.
The first 10 minutes of the second half was a fairly ordinary affair with both teams making fundamental errors to turn over possession and it was Canterbury who made the most of it scoring a pretty easy converted try in the 51st minute to make it 28-12.
Canterbury looked to mount a comeback and with pressure on the edge men it was Hawkins who relieved the pressure taking an intercept just metres out from his line and he then raced 95 metres to score in the corner for his hat trick and Mounties led 32-12.
In the 69th minute, Mitch Cahalane was rewarded with a try when he hit a nice short ball from Reece Goldsmith three out from the line and he crashed over for a try near the posts to give Place another easy conversion and Mounties extended their lead to 38-12.
Play then went end to end until the 78th minute when Hawkins got his fourth try of the day by being on the end of a nice sweeping backline move to make it 42-12 with Place unable to make the conversion and it remained that score until the final bell.
Mounties were served well by Ryan Carr who stood up in the absence of Mitch Cornish who is on representative duty while Cahalane, Joel Edwards and Uiti Baker all made valuable metres when needed.
Mounties Ron Massey Cup had a narrow defeat to Guildford 40-36 while the Sydney Shield got their season back on track defeating Guildford 40-36.
Next week Mounties take on Cronulla in the VB NSW Cup at Belmore Oval at 5pm while the Ron Massey Cup and True Blue Chemicals Sydney Shield tackle Asquith at Storey Park on Sunday with kickoff from 1:15pm.
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