Sharks dig deep to topple leaders

Rockingham Sharks 28 North Beach Sea Eagles  22

By PETER ROWE

The Rockingham Sharks caused the surprise of the round - if not the season  -  as they turned over leaders North Beach 28-22 in a thriller of a game at Franklin Offshore Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Botton versus top at this stage of the year in the NRLWAFuel to Go and Play Premiership should, in many observer’s eyes, been another two points for the high-flying Sea Eagles, but not for Sharks fans, who have seen their young team steadily improve over the past month.

“They deserved it,” a disappointed Beach coach Phil Douché said on the touchline after the game.

“We were just flat and they were so fired up and enthused.”

And enthused they were as centre George Hough set the tone for the much of the day, scoring after just two minutes.

“We knew this was coming,”  a delighted Sharls coach Pete Worth said. 
“Of course we have to continue next week but we played with intent.

 Beach were off their game but you can only play what is front of you.
“And they opened us up three times down our left edge before we made some changes.”

Dejae Adlam levelled 18 minutes later after the Sharks had successfully weathered a period of defence, but the visitors didn’t see the whitewash again until 18 minutes into the second half when Billy England scored.

Before that it was vintage Sharks, as hooker and man of the match Jarrad Whitty scored a brilliant solo try, running 55 metres to score under the posts before dominant forward Chris Siddons twisted and turned his tacklers to scorer another.

“He was pure quality,” Worth said of Whitty.  “On the front foot pushing through the middle. And Detroit (fullback Tamanui) was also solid at the back.”

As if that wasn’t enough excitement for the first 40 minutes, as the clock ran down a bomb from halfback Sean Scott was left to bounce and picked up by centre Keiron Laughton who saw skipper Ben Bolth running through off this right shoulder to score in the corner.

With a 16-point advantage at the break the Sea Eagles had to come out fired up for the second stanza - and they did.

England got them on the board in the 58th minute and the visitors found space down their right edge to exploit.

The Sharks with little possession looked tired as the Premiers got a roll on, with Kani Solomon closing the gap before England added another with 12 minutes left.

With the sniff of an amazing comeback on the cards the Sea Eagles went in search of another score to close the gap further.

When a Jeremy Wallace kick was gathered by Solomon, who then raced around to touch down under the posts, the resulting kick saw just a four-point margin.  With eight minutes still to play.

From the kick-off halfback Riley Hextell dropped the ball in goal and the Sharks again found their mojo going forward.

Errors on both sides saw possession change hands before a penalty call three minutes from time gave Laughton the chance to kick and extend their lead to a converted try.

“When it got close I wondered if we would know how to close out a game - and the young lads dug deep and hung in there. That was really good to see,” Worth added.

“This has always been a longterm project and it is nice to see some of that hard work beginning to pay off.”

A short kickoff after the penalty from Beach failed to go 10 metres and the Sharks again moved forward from the halfway line.

But again, and with a 90 seconds left, the visitors got the ball back and a penalty for a high tackle saw them march to the  30 metre line.

Then an error saw Lochlan Christy fall on the loose ball as the siren sounded for as what commentator Donny Bell called “the upset of the season”.