Tallon Smith
After blowing an 18-0 lead in round one against Young, South City opened its account for the Group 9 season on Saturday with a 20-15 comeback win over Wagga Kangaroos at Geohex Park.
With injured star playmaker Nathan Rose and recently retired representative forward Brody Tracey missing from their round one side, the Bulls overcame their cross-town rivals courtesy of a late double to fullback Jumarne Little-Kearnes.
South City coach Luke McBeath said that despite the disappointment of the loss against Young in round one, his side took plenty of positives out of that game into the Kangaroos clash.
“I was disappointed with how round one ended, we had a pretty good opportunity to win that game I thought and weren’t able to close it out in the second half, but there were still plenty of positives that we took out of that,” he said.
“[It] obviously led into this round, [there’s] probably still lots to improve on I think, but it was nice to get away with a win in the dying minutes.”
The Kangaroos opened up a 14-4 half time lead through a double to Dakota Ruta and another four-pointer to Baidyn Haumaha, before South City hit back 11 minutes after the break through halfback Josh Siegwalt to reduce the margin.
Little-Kearnes’ first try then saw the Bulls draw level at 14-all, before the Kangaroos went ahead again through a field goal to halfback and captain Zeik Foster with seven minutes remaining.
However, the Bulls made the most of a late opportunity when Seigwalt recovered an error off his own kick from Roos fullback Brayden O’Reilly and found Little-Kearnes on the inside for his second to seal a five-point victory.
When asked about the performance of his fullback, McBeath said Little-Kearnes’ courage in remaining on the field despite battling a hip injury didn’t go unnoticed, with the late matchwinner proving a memorable reward for a strong pre-season.
“It was great for all of us, but especially him,” he said.
“He’s had a really good pre-season, I was really impressed with everything he’s done so far so I guess that’s a little bit of reward for all his hard work.
“He’s a tough character, he had a bit of a hip injury [and] he had to move from fullback out onto the wing, so to be able to then continue on and score the two winning tries is a pretty good effort.”
Next up for the Bulls is a clash with Temora, which bounced back from a round one loss to Cootamundra with a 36-22 win over Young on Saturday and claimed the Group 9 Challenge Cup in the process.
South City return to the improved facilities Harris Park with a +3.5 start in the cup, with the match to kick off at 2:35pm on Sunday.
