Red up as PBC shock Keebra
RED up. Those are the two words that inspired Palm Beach Currumbin to stave off a resurgent Keebra Park outfit to claim a memorable 26-22 NRL Schoolboy Cup victory last night at Pizzey Park.
Having trailed by as much as 12 points early, Keebra threatened to run away with the game in the second half after a major momentum swing.
The Southport-based league nursery scored four tries in a 10-minute blitz – starting with pivot Paul Karaitana’s four-pointer on the half-time buzzer – as their left edge featuring star centre Seb Winters-Chang ran riot.
But united by their call to dig deep, PBC sneaked home in a thrilling upset against the reigning national champions.
“At school, we have got a saying when everything gets tough: Red up,” explained second-rower Juwain Compain.
“What we do is we get aggressive, we try to win the momentum back and turn it around. The forward pack (leads it), especially our hooker Jed (Edwards). He is the fit bloke in our team and when you know something is going down, he just gets all of the big boys up and everyone follows.”
Compain scored a try and would have had another if not for a forward-pass ruling.
PBC halfback Tom Dearden put in an outstanding, controlled display, while fullback Glenn McGrady came up with a couple of big plays including cleaning up a lastditch kick as Keebra attacked the goal-line in the dying seconds.
But it was Toby Sexton’s goal-kicking that proved the difference, as PBC triumphed despite scoring four tries to Keebra’s five.
“It’s something I practice every day and try to add to my game but I have been off lately, so that was a bit of a change,” Sexton said humbly. “I just tried to stay calm.”
While PBC broke out in jubilant celebrations, Keebra were left to rue their slow start.
Coach Glen Campbell was calm post-game, with full knowledge their title defence is still well and truly alive.
“We improved in our second half and that’s what we sort of took away from it,” he said. “But you can’t give people headstarts and you can’t miss easy tackles. That’s football; it’s a relentless game.
“We have got a few things to work on which the boys identified themselves, which was a big plus.
“They’re disappointed and so they should be. You never like to lose. We’ll take our lessons away from it and move forward.”
The match was played in front of a big crowd headlined by Gold Coast Titans players such as Anthony Don, Jai Arrow and Keegan Hipgrave.
Keebra the corresponding last year
36-20. won game