Dragons overpower GPS
Sunnybank regained their winning form in defeating GPS 41-18 on a wet and windy afternoon at Oldmac oval, in round two of Trinity Premier Rugby.
Sunnybank, after suffering a 45-14 loss to the Gold Coast last week, marked their territory early on with Robert Lee scoring in the opening minutes.
Continuing to dominate, Sunnybank posted another two tries before halftime, while GPS managed just two penalties to trail 17-6 at the break.
GPS coach Mick Heenan admitted his team started badly and needed to improve in all facets of play.
“(It) probably comes down to mental composure. We weren’t switched on, we weren’t adjusting quickly in defence, we just sat back and watched Sunnybank play,” Heenan said.
“Sunnybank played very well. We knew they were going to bounce back up after what happened last week and we just had to make sure we did the same.”
GPS recovered slightly in the second half, with tries to flyhalf Shane Arnold and scrumhalf Tom Sully, however Sunnybank also kicked on with another four tries, one a Stuart Killen intercept for a length of the field score.
Sunnybank coach Roy Saunders was satisfied with his team’s performance, singling out captain and try scorer, scrumhalf Sean Armstrong as a standout player.
“We worked on a few things during the week. Last week we were too soft in the breakdown and we did well in that area this week,” Saunders said.
“GPS probably struggled a little bit with player availability and they competed well at the breakdown, probably lacked a bit of punch, and we got our game down and they were playing catch up like we were last week,” Saunders said.
“We will continue to work on what we do best, that’s to play the game and play it at good pace, I think our game will continue to build and the boys are a lot happier this week and understood the difference between this week and last week,” he said.
Sunnybank 41 (J. Su’a 2, R Lee, L. Lemer, S. Armstrong, S. Killen, J. Kriukelis tries, T. Potini 3 con) def GPS 18 (S. Arnold, T. Sully tries, D.Slade 1 con, 2 pen)
Match report by Dani Luck
