The Belconnen Sharks have defeated the Yass Magpies 44-22 at Walker Park on Saturday afternoon.
Belconnen United five-eighth Matthew Woolnough showcased a masterclass performance to gift the Sharks an important two-competition points.
The Sharks applied some early pressure through some great momentum up the middle. Five-eighth Matthew Woolnough earned his team a repeat set when he placed a grubber kick through which Yass failed to pick-up.
Woolnough then set-up the first try off an attacking scrum when he threw a short pass to Nukura Ngere, who did well to offload to fullback Livai Kaloutolu to score under the posts untouched. Sharks led 6-0 after the first ten minutes.
The Sharks continued to place more goal-line pressure on the Magpies through some great short kicks from halfback Joshua Pokoney.
Matthew Woolnough scored himself another try assist when he dummied and broke the line to put his backrower Ngere over for his first try of the afternoon. Campbell Woolnough converted to extend the Sharks early lead to 12-0 after 14 minutes.
Shark’s hooker Campbell Woolnough ducked out from dummy-half to break the line who then linked up with his brother Matthew Woolnough to score under the posts. Woolnough added the extra two points and gave the Sharks a handy 18-nil lead.
Yass earned themselves some important field position after a tough opening 20 minutes to the match but, the Shark’s scramble defence held the home-side out.
Sharks backrower Nukura Ngere broke the line of defence and linked up with dummy-half Ewen McCarroll, but some great chase-down defence from Caleb Esera stopped a certain try.
Matthew Woolnough two plays later, threw a great inside ball for forward Sonny Tupuola who crashed over for another Sharks try. Sharks led the Magpies 22-0 with less than 10 minutes till halftime.
Yass found themselves on the attack and placed a grubber kick through which was cleaned up from fullback Kaloutolu who broke the line and linked up with winger PK Amponn-Nyamekye who ran the field and scored. Woolnough converted to extend the visitors lead to 28-0.
Belconnen made their first error coming out of their own half and Yass finally capitalised. Forward Manu Vanisi stormed onto the ball close to the line and crashed over to hand the home side their first try of the afternoon. Captain Shaun Davis kicked the conversion to go into the sheds halftime trailing the Sharks 28-6.
The Sharks picked up where they left off in the first half forcing an error from the Magpies coming out from their own goal line.
Matthew Woolnough added to his already-incredible performance by grubber kicking for himself and diving on it to open the scoring in the second half. He converted his second try to extend the visitors lead to 34-6.
Yass scored through winger Nofoaiga Limoni who received a beautiful cut-out from Sione Moala to put the Magpies on the board for their second try for the afternoon. Davis converted to edge closer to the Sharks convincing 34-12 lead with 20 minutes remaining.
Limoni bagged himself a double when he chased through a well-weighted grubber kick from Moala to edge even closer to the Sharks large first-half lead. Davis’ conversion was unsuccessful when he hit the upright, to trail the Sharks 34-16 with 15 minutes remaining.
Matthew Woolnough capped off a great Sharks performance when he dummied and broke the defensive line, beat the fullback and scored his third for the afternoon. Woolnough converted his own try to close out the game for the visitors and extend their lead to 40-16.
Yass took advantage of an unforced Shark’s error when Cooper Harris caught the short-side defence off-guard and crossed in the corner for a late try. Shaun Davis converted to bring the scores to 40-22.
David Williams took an incredible intercept and offloaded to Joshua Pokoney who was dragged down 40 metres from the tryline. Woolnough took advantage of the depleted defence and kicked for winger Iszac Bell who put the icing on the cake with a great try on fulltime. Sharks ran out victorious 44-22 over Yass at Walker Park.
