Tallon Smith
The Corrimal Cougars have moved into third place on the Illawarra Rugby League ladder after holding off Western Suburbs for a 14-8 victory at Ziems Park on Saturday afternoon.
After opening up a 14-0 lead through 49 minutes following tries to Kai Raper, Jacob Karam and Brad Morkos, the Cougars clung on to their advantage through the remainder of the match to record a fourth straight victory over the defending premiers.
Corrimal coach Sean Tabet was pleased to walk away with the victory, but said his side made it tougher than it needed to be against the competition heavyweights.
“I think it was probably a harder game than what we had to make it, but the boys to their credit, they hung in there, they defended their errors, and you come away with two points whenever you can in those types of games,” he said.
“Wests are such a dangerous team and they have got so many weapons all across the park, so you can never really sleep on them across the 80 minutes.”
The Cougars opened the scoring after 12 minutes of play, when a series of hot-potato like passes moved the Wests defence around and opened up a saloon passage for Raper, who beat the covering tackles of fullback Beau Baldock and Devils captain Tautau Moga to reach the line.
That 4-0 advantage grew to 10-0 soon after when an offload from fullback Lorima Saukuru found Declan Purcell, who put in a delicate grubber for front rower Karam to pounce on in the in-goal.
Morkos then added another try on the other side of half time, following an infield kick from winger Joseph Touma off a shift, before the Devils finally hit back in the 61st minute through back rower Phoenix Vetenibua-Finnerty to reduce the deficit to 14-6.
Wests continued to throw everything they had at the Cougars in the final quarter of the match, but ultimately a penalty goal to reduce the margin to one score with a minute remaining was all the Devils could muster, with Corrimal holding on to prevail by six points.
After leapfrogging Collegians into third on points differential following their 24-18 loss to Thirroul in the other Saturday fixture played at Thomas Gibson Park, Tabet said the side’s focus is on staying there.
“I think we are past the rebuilding stage now, so it is probably time to start picturing bigger things, top three is a minimum for us at the moment,” he said.
“What happens from there, we just take it every game at a time.”
After ending a 16-year finals drought last season, the Cougars have their sights set on a deeper run into the playoffs this year following the addition of three key off-season recruits in former NRL forwards Ben Murdoch-Masila, Raymond Faitala-Mariner, and Reuben Porter.
Tabet said the trio of enforcers have added strike and professionalism to the side, with Murdoch-Masila, the Cultural and Inclusion Officer at the St George Illawarra Dragons by day, a particularly strong leader within the group.
“Although he goes hard on the field, he’s the calm head, and he is so good to have, he is almost like a second coach out there,” Tabet said.
“Sometimes there’s conversations I don’t hear that he deals with, I guess he is the dad of the team.
“Ben, Reuben and Ray, to have three middles like that all on the field at one time, as a club and as a coach, we’re blessed.”
Another strong performer for the Cougars on the day was Dragons SG Ball player Saukuru, who played a key role in the side’s first try and was rock solid at the back in a tense finish.
“He was pretty awesome for us today, he is a livewire from the Dragons,” Tabet said.
“He looks like a threat every time they kick to him, he is someone to watch for the rest of the season.”
Both sides will be away next week, with Corrimal travelling to Collegians Sports Complex on Saturday, before Wests make the journey to Sutherland to face the Pirates on Sunday.
