Belrose 14 (S Carew, W Bishop, N Leloux tries, Mortimer goal) drew with Newtown 14 (R Parker, T Nicholas, A La Vin tries, Nicholas goal).
The visitors were intent on domination in the forwards but Belrose took the ball into the gang tackles without taking a backward step. Repeated head shots produced a stream of penalties that allowed Belrose to camp in the Jets half for the first 15 minutes. In this period they crossed the tryline 3 times only to spill the ball. The scoreboard attendants werent bothered until the 37th minute when Belrose captain Steve Carew carried 3 defenders over the line and actually grounded the ball legally.
Belrose secured a strong position early in the second half when Willie Bishop picked up a rebound and ran 70 metres to score and then shortly after set up Leloux with a bullet pass. Belrose had not played since 7 May and visibly tired in the last 15 minutes. Richie Parker, who played very strongly throughout, scored and then Toufic Nicholas, as the Jets began to string a few passes together for a 14-10 scoreline with 4 minutes remaining. Twice in the last few sets Belrose knocked on when the Jets were on 6th tackle. The final scrum was packed with seconds remaining, a little chip bounced out of the defender's hands allowing Anton La Vin to score in the corner. Nicholas could not convert.
The other games went as expected: Windsor with Chan Ly at half beat the Entrance 40-16, Cabramatta beat Erina 40-18 and Wenty beat Asquith 36-12.
The stop start nature of the JB cup over the last month was due to the decision to suspend games while the Country championships were on. Erina and The Entrance had 13 of the 17 players in the Central Coast team but they got beaten by Northern Rivers so nobody played on the second blank weekend. The Woy Woy players that stuck with the club now know what it is like to be a winner, having won more games this year than the did in 3 years in the JB Cup.
****Writeup courtesy of Nfed from the NSWRL forum****:thumn
