Tallon Smith
The Sutherland-Loftus Pirates ended a 12-game winless start to their inaugural season in the Illawarra Rugby League with a last-gasp 26-24 victory over the Dapto Canaries at Sutherland Oval on Sunday.
Trailing 24-20, the Pirates formed a scrum to stop the clock, giving them one final chance at stealing the win, and they did just that, as winger Tom Wiseman grounded a kick from centre Tyrell Lafituanai, paving the way for a clutch conversion out wide from the latter to seal a heartstopping two-point victory.
Sutherland-Loftus coach Paul Nakhle said the victory means much more than just two competition points to the Shire club, which entered its first A-grade side in thirteen years into the Illawarra competition.
“It means so much for the players, and obviously the supporters and the club, the committee, and all the volunteers at the club,” he said.
“We managed to pull off a very late victory and the special thing was it was Old Boys’ Day here at Sutherland Oval, so it was really special for them, and I couldn’t have written the script any better.
“One of the old boys, Tom Wiseman, scored the winning try after the siren, so everything fell into place.
“It was just one of those magical things that happen in rugby league sometimes, and [on Sunday], the footy Gods were smiling on us.”
The result followed a back-and-forth match, where the Pirates shot out to an early 10-0 lead through tries to Kobie Wilson and Wiseman, only for the Canaries to hit back through Jake Kamire and Justin Jones to level the scores at 10-all leading into half time.
Sutherland then skipped out to another 10-point lead, through tries to Will Stewart and Blake Wardrobe, only for Justin Jones and Henri Young and Braxton Wallace to cross and put the Canaries back in front 24-20.
However, the Pirates managed to stop the clock with just enough time for one final chance, leading to Wiseman’s second and a memory that will live long in the minds of the Sutho faithful.
When asked about how he was feeling leading up to that final play, Nakhle said he “wasn’t nervous” given the low percentage of final plays that result in matchwinners, only to be pleasantly surprised by the outcome.
“It’s one play, you have a crack and see what happens,” he said.
“They never really [come] off do they, but today it happened.”
“We formed the scrum, there was 0.6 seconds left, we went to the left hand side, we had two attackers, they had two defenders, and our centre Tyrell, he put the kick through, and Tommy Wiseman didn’t give up on the play, he chased the play and got the ball down just before the dead ball line.
“Everyone was jumping around and the referee gave the try, but after that we obviously had to kick the goal, I think it was about 10 metres from the touchline, so it wasn’t an easy kick, and Tyrell, the man who put the kick through, actually kicked the goal.
“It wasn’t an easy one, we still had some work to do there, but he got the job done, and after that it just felt like we’d won a grand final to be honest, it was fantastic scenes, everyone was jumping around and everyone was really happy and excited.
“It’s a well-deserved win for the boys and everyone at the club.”
In other results from round 13 of the Illawarra Rugby League over the weekend, Corrimal made it seven wins in a row with a 20-4 win over Wests, while Collegians and Thirroul finished level in a 32-all draw.
The ladder is: Corrimal (18 points), Thirroul (17), Collegians (15), Wests (14), Dapto (12), Sutherland-Loftus (2).
SUTHERLAND-LOFTUS 26 (Tom Wiseman 2, Kobie Wilson, Will Stewart, Blake Wardrobe tries; Blake Wardrobe 2, Tyrell Lafituanai goals) DEFEATED DAPTO 24 (Justin Jones 2, Jake Kamire, Henri Young, Braxton Wallace tries; Troy Pieper 2 goals) at Sutherland Oval, Sunday August 9.
