There were two feasts at “Waminda International’’ yesterday.
One was off the field with the East Campbelltown Eagles celebrating their Polynesian contingent with a feast of food and music.
The other “feast’’ was on the field where the home side and Cabramatta traded tries for almost 80 minutes and a combined 70 points.
Indeed the visitors scored first in the opening minute to put a bit of a dampener on the festivities off the field.
But the Eagles, who were sporting a specially designed jersey for the day, are made of sturdy stuff and didn’t take long to return fire before going on to win 40-30.
Cabramatta got off to a flying start when Jason Thompson crashed over for the first try in the opening minute to go to a 6-0 lead, but that was short lived as the Eagles quickly replied through their leading try scorer Craig Moustakas.
Cabramatta scored again through Timothy McDonald and Moustakas returned fire when he bagged his second try for the day.
Cabramatta’s Donny Thompson was next to score to stretch the lead to eight points.
The tit for tat was far from over though because Fred Tevega proved to be too big and strong for Cabramatta and he scored a four pointer for an 18-16 scoreline.
When 18 year old Samuel Ioane injected himself into the game by scoring a try just before the break, it meant that the Eagles would have the lead for the first time in the match at 22-18.
That was the halftime score and it was the home side who were first to bother the scoreboard attendant after the resumption.
Mason Talolua crossed for the Eagles and suddenly the Eagles had an eight point buffer at 28-18.
When Samuel Ioane scored next in the corner to give the Eagles a 34-18 lead it started to look a little bleak for Cabra.
But Donny Thompson bagged his second try for Cabramatta to give the Two Blues a sniff at 34-24.
Luckily the Eagles were the next to score when hard hitting forward Talolua bumped off a couple of defenders to score his second try for 40-24 lead with 15 minutes remaining.
Cabramatta threw everything at the Eagles in that period but their only reward was a try that came too late to matter.
Eagles coach Richard Barnes admitted his team had put in a scrappy performance.
“We really made the game hard for ourselves,’’ he said.
“Our defence wasn’t up to standard but we have played some tough footy in the past few weeks, I cannot fault the guys’ commitment and effort every week.’’
The East Campbelltown Eagles will travel to McCredie Park, Guildford to take on the Guildford Owls this Saturday, August 19. Kick off is 3.30pm.
