The Campbelltown City Kangaroos have kept their slim Group Six finals hopes alive with a 38-10 win over Mittagong last night at Campbelltown Stadium, reports MIKE SHEAN.
Both sides observed a minute’s silence before the match to honour Queensland Cup player James Ackermann, who passed away last weekend.
Representative winger Josh Burke opened the scoring for City after 10 minutes, which resulted from a nice backline move on the last tackle.
Shortly after, Chris Williamson crossed for the Roos to give them an 8-0 lead.
Goal kicking has been an issue for City this season and nothing much changed last night when both the opening touchdowns were unconverted.
But City winger Alan Beckman scored one of the best solo tries of the season halfway through the first half.
His try was successfully converted to give the home side a 14-0 lead.
Mittagong meanwhile were playing like a team that were struggling to adjust to the conditions.
However experienced Mittagong forward Bas Sell crossed for the Lions just before halftime, to put his side in with a chance of a comeback.
That hope didn’t last long, when City’s Williamson bagged a double just after the restart, the first following another error from the Lions.
Burke added a double to his name after 53 minutes, and the game was as good as gone for Mittagong, with the Roos leading 26-4 at that stage.
Beau Borchardt then scored another long range try for the City side who with 20 minutes left looked in total control of the match.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]Isaac Ngaia then scored an equally impressive long range try for Mittagong, and with 11 minutes left, there was still some hope of a comeback from the Lions.[/social_quote]
This didn’t eventuate and the match was sealed when Josh Burke crossed for his third of the night with just four minutes left on the clock.
The Roos ended up winning 38-10, with coach Drew Dalton delighted with the performance from his side after the game.
Dalton said he was pleased with a full 80 minute effort from his side, as well as the defensive effort from his team, which kept Mittagong to only two tries.
“The defence was the highlight for me. We know we can score points,’’ he said.
Dalton said consistency was a key to their chances of making the finals in 2015.
City is currently three points out from the top five.
