The Illawarra Steelers' Harold Matthews team travelled to New Era Stadium, Cabramatta and beat the Parramatta Eels 32-12 over the weekend.
It wasn’t the start the boys desired considering they trailing 12-0 after just 10 minutes.
Illawarra would fight their way back into the contest however and scored 32 unanswered points.
Coach Ben Linde was impressed with his side’s performance.
"I'm very happy with our mindset, we were under the pump for a bit but we were able to get ourselves out of it. I’m happy for them, they’re buying into what we’re doing," Linde said.
Linde mentioned in his half-time speech that the goal was to keep them scoreless, which they did.
"They were very courageous, ripped in for each other and worked hard. We’ve still got plenty to do in the weeks ahead though," Linde said.
"It’s good to get consecutive wins especially against Canterbury and Parramatta. It’s a good win but we are going to stay level headed."
Captain, Connor Muhleisen echoed his coach’s comments
"I thought the effort was outstanding," Muhleisen said. "But it’s a long season, we’ve got to keep working hard and improving as a team."
St George's Harold Matthews team unfortunately went down to the Canberra Raiders 36-10 last Saturday too.
A try from winger Tyrone Simitsopoulous in the 14th minute helped steady the ship in the first half, before back-rower Hayden Budd's try immediately after half-time helped level the score at 10-all.
Unfortunately five second half tries from the Raiders helped the boys from the nation's capital run away with the game.
Steelers 32 (Kane Ball 2, Jayden Sullivan, Jack Walsh, Aaron Schoupp, Lleyton Roach tries; Aaron Schoupp 4 goals) defeated Eels 12 (Jandamurra Stewart 2 tries; Tyler Field goal)
Raiders 36 (Junior Tupou 4, Jack Williams, Jacob Church, Cooper O'Connor tries; Junior Tupou 4 goals) defeated Dragons 10 (Tyrone Simitsopoulous, Hayden Budd tries; Benjamin Ukarangi goal)
ILLAWARRA's Tarsha Gale Girls side had a narrow 20-18 loss to the Eels however.
The girls trailed 8-0 early, but never gave up, and their coach, Dan Lacey was impressed with the side's fighting spirit.
“I thought the effort was there but our discipline with the ball let us down," Lacey said.
"It’s the first time we’ve come up against any adversity so it was good to see how the girls would handle it.
"We will regroup from that and as we have the bye next week we have time to work on our discipline."
Captain Keeley Davis agreed with the team facing adversity for the first time.
"It’s the hardest game we’ve played so far, we’re all just trying to gel," she said.
"It’s only our second game, it was a good effort and we just didn’t stick in there enough when things were going against us.
"Consistency was probably what let us down so we’ll be a better team. “We’ll be focussing on working hard during adversity before the next game which we have got two weeks to prepare for."
Eels 20 (Katie Key, Rosita Utia, Akosita Masima, Brittany Starr, Shaylee Bent tries) defeated Steelers 18 (Lilly-Rose Bennett 3, Leanne Jackson tries, Lilly-Rose Bennett 1 goal).
THE Illawarra Steelers' SG Ball squad recorded a huge 54-26 win over the Eels in the final game of the triple header.
The Steelers trailed 10-0 after 10 minutes before three quick tries saw them hit an 18-10 lead before Parramatta hit back to go up 20-18 come half-time.
Coach Shane Millard’s speech at the break must have been nothing short of special as it motivated his side to score six second half tries to secure 28-point win.
Five-Eighth, Zaan Weatherall was superb with the boot landing nine from nine conversions while Jye Richards, Samuel McCann, Blair Grant and Jalal Bazzaz all scored doubles.
Hooker Richards was pleased with the performance.
"It was a great win not only to get the two points, but putting 54 points on Parra is unheard of," Richards said.
"We aim to produce an effort like that every week. We were pretty disappointing in the first half, and to only let in one try in the second, proved to be a good win for the boys.
"We’ll be working hard on our defence moving forward because the first half wasn’t up to our standards, and we need to fix that."
Assistant Coach Shaun Timmins added: "It was a good second half, we didn’t play too well in the first, we had a good patch there for 10-15 minutes, but it wasn’t good enough.
"So we challenged the boys at half-time to try and do it for the full half. They completed their sets, ran hard and I thought our two leaders, Bailey Dickinson and Zaan Weatherall, were outstanding."
The St George Dragons were also able to record a win, against the Raiders in a 34-20 high-scoring affair.
Four tries in the first half counteracted the Raiders' best efforts as the Dragons went into the break up 24-14.
Never really threatened in the second half, the Dragons scored two more tries through prop Enaisi Tokelau and Shaun Sauni-Esau – his second of the afternoon – to secure the 14-point win.
Steelers 54 (Jye Richards 2, Samuel McCann 2, Blair Grant 2, Jalal Bazzaz 2, Jiye Ellis tries; Zaan Weatherall 9 goals) defeated Eels 26 (John-Paul Nohra, Charbel Tasipale, Lufusi Vea Tapaatoutai, Alex Seve, Valance Harris tries; Kyle Schneider 2, Alex Seve goals)
Dragons 34 (Shondre Lee-Silva 2, Shaun Sauni-Esau 2, Maylee Semu, Enaisi Tokelau tries; Liam Christensen 5 goals) defeated Raiders 20 (Darren Caulton, Jahlon Governer, Kristian Jensen and Lachlan Eveston tries; Kristian Jensen 2 goals)
