Pride intact but victory elusive
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AN 80-minute effort in a loss to Intrust Super Cup high-flyers PNG Hunters has Northern Pride players and coaches convinced they can match it with teams at the top of the ladder.
The commitment wasn’t enough for the two points but coach Ty Williams was impressed with “character I haven’t seen before” to fight back into the game in the second half.
“The first 10 minutes we were a bit behind the eightball. Obviously the conditions, the weather, it was very steamy up there and they shot out of the gates pretty well,” he said.
“Ten-nil down at halftime but the lads came back with a really good attitude in the second half ... but we burned a lot of juice getting back into it
“We could have shut up shop there but we just kept coming and probably a show of respect for us, PNG get two penalties in front of the sticks and they take the two and that doesn’t happen very often.
“We were coming home very strong and I think they sensed that and I spoke to their coach afterwards and that was reasoning why they took the two, because they knew we were coming and mate that’s a credit to our boys and we’ve taken massive step in the right direction the past two weeks which is good to see.”
Slow starts continue to be the Pride’s achilles’ heel, who conceded a try in the first 10 minutes of a match for the seventh time this season.
Williams said the week off had come at a good time for the squad after taking on two of the biggest packs in the Intrust Super Cup.
“We need a break. It’s been massive for us this last month. Obviously we had a couple of home games and then on the road and obviously the efforts we’ve had the last two weeks, Norths at home and PNG this week, two big physical sides, our guys are busted and bruised,” he said.
Pride captain Ryan Ghietti said after a break to spend time with friends and family, players would return confident they could give the top sides “a good shake-up”.
“We certainly showed up. We knew it was going to be tough, we didn’t put the cue in the rack at all. We played for 80 minutes and they just got the win in the end.
“At times we were good, we were really good. At times we were poor but we contested for the 80 minutes and we’re happy with that.”
The Pride will have a recovery session this week before most players put their feet up over the representative weekend. Their next match is on May 12 against Tweed Heads at Barlow Park.