EARLY DAMAGE
Fast start sees Pittsworth down Souths
RUGBY LEAGUE: A dominant start from Pittsworth put the brakes on the Souths juggernaut and helped the Danes progress with a 44-24 win over the Tigers in yesterday’s TRL elimination semi-final at Clive Berghofer Stadium.
Coming in off a last-round bye, Pittsworth took the game away from Souths in the blink of an eye.
The Danes got out to a 30-0 lead after just 25 minutes in what was the perfect start to the game from the defending premiers.
It was the third sudden-death game for Souths in seven days so Pittsworth wanted to get out early.
They did just that. Souths battled back into the game to close the gap to 36-24 with 13 minutes to play but Pittsworth ran in two tries in the last 10 minutes to hold out the gutsy Tigers.
“We wanted to start well. We knew it was their third game in seven days and we wanted to make an effort to start well and I think we did that in the first half,” Pittsworth captain Daniel York said.
“I think we completed well in the first half.
“We spoke about how they’d have a lot of momentum after their last-minute win against Gatton last weekend and then their win on Wednesday night.
“We wanted to start flat out and I think we did that.”
Danes winger Alex Sinclair scored a hat-trick in that 25-minute blitz to start the game while Kabunare Kofe crossed twice.
Souths had four individual try-scorers in their revival, something that York put down, in part, to Pittsworth looking comfortable after the great start.
“It’s a bit of human nature,” he said. “We probably started to look towards next week.
“In that second half they scored a few intercept tries and it was a good thing we were able to get back in and dig it out and score the last two tries in the game.”
Pittsworth now takes on Wattles in the minor semi-final next weekend.