Bears face biggest test

Flying Falcons a whole different ball game: coach

IT’S not often a team that has won their past seven games by a cumulative margin of 203 points goes into their next fixture as the underdog.

But that’s the situation for the Burleigh Bears as they strive to become the first Intrust Super Cup team this year to topple the Sunshine Coast juggernaut in a Sunday afternoon blockbuster.

The Falcons have won all 11 games they’ve played in 2019.

They are yet to score less than 26 points in a match, have passed 50 on four occasions, and are coming off three away games in a row where they put Souths Logan, Townsville and Ipswich to the sword.

Todd Murphy has already racked up 150 points on his own and three of his teammates – Nicho Hynes, Cooper Johns and Harry Grant – are in the competition’s top five for try assists.

All in all, it makes for an ominous prospect.

In the Bears’ favour, though, is their standing as the ISC’s best defensive outfit. They have conceded just 11.09 points on average, have only twice had more than 18 points put on them and are the only club without a player in the top 50 for most missed tackles. Regardless, Burleigh coach Jimmy Lenihan played down his side’s chances in typical fashion.

“No doubt we are going to have to defend and see how low we can keep their score,” he said.

“At the moment no one seems to be able to keep them below 50 too much. Maybe the headline should be, if we can keep them below 50 we’ve had a win.”

Bears second-rower Jacob Hind (pictured) agreed they are now in for a real test after a series of games against lowerranked opponents.

“We’ll just show up and hope they drop a few balls because no one is touching them at the moment,” said the exFalcon.

“We have been going well but we have been going well against teams that are towards the bottom of the ladder.

“(Sunshine Coast) are flying obviously. I think our execution is going to be massive. You can’t give those guys errors and cheap ball.”

Hind did take their defensive record as a positive, particularly their lack of lapses even when they have been dominating opponents.

“They are going to throw a lot more at us but our resolve and our attitude towards our defence has been pleasing in the last month,” he said.

Tweed will face Souths Logan at Piggabeen Sports Complex tomorrow in search of a fifth win on the trot.