Kangaroos Outlast the Sharks in Physical Contest

The Kangaroos continue their winning streak with a tight victory against the Sharks 18-10.

For the Canberra Raiders Cup Match of the Round, the Queanbeyan Kangaroos were back on hosting duties facing off against the Belconnen United Sharks at Seears Workwear Oval.

In a top-two clash, both teams were looking to keep their perfect winning streaks going after the Roos win against Woden Valley Rams and the Sharks pulling off a 20-point victory against the Bulldogs in Round Five.

With the Sharks kicking off the action, Jake Kiely took the first hit of the match in his 100th first-grade game, but you couldn’t even blink as the Kangaroos came out with a wide-open style opening set.

A linebreak from Brayden Omoeboh set their attack wide open with the ball going left to right in quick fashion, he was tackled before a shift to the right which saw Te Ngo Christie score in the corner. The scoreline remained 4-0 after an unsuccessful conversion from Lucas Thomson.

After multiple attempts to break over the tryline, the Sharks went over through Ben Kami off the back of a beautiful pass from Jordan Holten-Williams. An unsuccessful conversion sees the score line remain even.

After strong defence on the Kangaroos try line, Sharks’ Zac Patch performed a hard-hitting tackle against Harlem Cooper, but with a lucky bounce from an Adam Quinlan kick which saw him score in the middle to extend the Kangaroos’ lead.

With the Sharks down to eleven, through two players being sin-binned in quick succession, they needed to pull off a miracle.

But the Kangaroos used this to their advantage through an Adam Quinlan and Josh Ayers passing combination to see Brayden Omoeboh score on the left-hand edge.

However, the conversion swung a little too far left to see the scoreline 14-4 going into halftime.

As both sides came out for the second half, the Roos were looking to keep their hard-hitting momentum going while the Sharks were looking for some more ball possession to gain some points back with a full thirteen on the field.

With Adam Quinlan kicking off the second half action, both sides had strong opening sets.

But it was Jojo Delle not even two minutes into the second half to slide over cleanly for four to get the Sharks back into the match, off the back of a one-on-steal in the middle of the field.

A successful left side conversion from their halfback closes the gap to only four points.

Through some back-and-forth plays from both sides, the Kangaroos were about to complete their set, Jesse Dent blew the attack wide open for the Kangaroos with a linebreak and run down the right-hand side.

Just when we thought it was done, a couple of deflections came through from the attacking side and Adam Quinlan cleaned it up and scored for his second try of the match. An unsuccessful conversion sees the Kangaroos ahead by eight.

After multiple try-scoring opportunities being held up, hard-hitting sets and absolute try-savers, the scoreline remained 18-10 at the siren with the Kangaroos walking away victorious.

The Kangaroos will travel to Raiders Belconnen to face the West Belconnen Warriors while the Sharks will look to bounce back from this tough deficit against the Gunghalin Bulls.