BRISBANE CITY OUTLASTS SPIRIT IN PERTH
Perth Spirit has suffered a 26-21 loss to Brisbane City in front of a 2,300-strong crowd at McGillivray Oval this afternoon.
Both sides gave the ball plenty of width throughout the match, with the home side turning in a strong first half performance to lead 21-18 at the break. However, while the attacking intent remained in the second term, it was the visitors who crossed for the lone try of the second half to run out five-point winners.
A strong showing from Perth Spirit backs, Dane Haylett-Petty and Solomoni Rasolea and a brace for flyhalf Dillyn Leyds wasn’t enough to hold out a solid Brisbane City outfit.
Haylett-Petty was particularly dangerous for the Perth side – beating the first two defenders throughout the match and carrying play downfield with a consistent kicking display.
Spirit coach, Kevin Foote, said his side was disappointed with the loss but there was still a long way to go in the competition.
“The Brisbane side was very switched on today,” he said. “We were definitely on the wrong side of it and we need to fix that if we want to go further in this competition.
“Discipline was an in issue today and we’ll go back and have a look at our game and see where we need to improve going forward.
“There is still a lot of exciting prospects for us so we’ve just got to stay positive now and regroup and come back next week and do the job.”
Brisbane City dominated the early run of play and in the fourth minute, winger Chris Kuridrani crossed in the corner to put his side up 5-0.
Recent Wallaby inclusion Kyle Godwin showed he is back to full strength with a blitzing run down the sideline before offloading to Marcel Brache to put the Spirit into the attacking quarter.
From the ensuing scrum, Junior Rasolea carried two defenders before offloading to Dillyn Leyds, who scored his second try in as many games under the posts. Leyds’ successful conversion put the Spirit ahead 8-5.
The teams shared possession for the next ten minutes but it was the Spirit that broke through with a lineout deep in Brisbane territory and the subsequent rolling maul sent Heath Tessmann over for his second try of the competition to extend the lead to 13-5.
Brisbane responded, working the ball downfield and from a penalty took the quick tap and – against a stretching Spirit defence – found prop Pettowa Paraka to score the simplest of tries to find themselves just three points behind on the scoreboard.
Leyds stretched the lead to 21-10 with his second converted try for the match, turning Brisbane fullback Matthew Feaunati inside out to dance through and cross again under the posts.
With just minutes remaining in the half, Brisbane’s driving maul deep in the Spirit’s quarter allowed Paraka to cross for his second. Flyhalf Jake McIntyre nailed the conversion to take the score to 21-8 at the half-time break.
The Spirit started the second half off the back foot with Matt Hodgson caught offside at the scrum and shown a yellow card. The home side defended strongly and prevented ‘City’ from capitalising on the reduced personnel.
The Spirit launched a number of long range attacking raids only to fall a pass short or turnover possession and in the 65th minute, Brisbane turned the tables, scoring a long range try from a turnover.
Feaunati sprinted from the Brisbane line to half-way before offloading to Nick Frisby who chipped through for Junior Laloifi to score. McIntyre kicked the conversion and they took the lead, 26-21.
A late attempt to steal the game when Godwin linked with Junior Rasolea to seemingly put Dane Haylett-Petty away was dashed as the play was called back for an errant foot on the sideline.
The Spirit continued to attack the Brisbane defensive line but they held firm and the turnover after the siren sealed the 26-21 victory.
Perth Spirit 21 (Dillyn Leyds 2; Heath Tessmann tries; Dillyn Leyds 2 conversions) defeated Brisbane City 26 (Pettowa Paraka 2; Chris Kuridrani, Junior Laloifi tries; Jake McIntyre 2 conversions)
