SOUTHERN Bay Cyclones travelled to University again last Saturday to take on the top ranked University team and were determined to come away with a better result than the draw the previous week.
In the end, Cyclones came up trumps, winning by 31-19.
The opening stanza was played at a furious pace but defences by both teams dominated proceedings, with no quarter asked or given.
Uncontested scrums called by Uni nullified Cyclones strong scrum platform, however Cyclones rucks and mauls were providing quality ball for the backs to launch attacks.
As the half progressed, neither side had scored- when, against the run of play, Uni took a quick tap penalty and caught the Cyclones defence napping, to score a try in the corner for a 5-0 lead.
Cyclones response was immediate. A great solo effort by fly-half Nick Imber saw him score a try beside the posts and fullback Matt Byrne's conversion took Cyclones to a 7-5 lead.
By half-time Cyclones added tries to hooker Andrew McFerran and flanker Luke Wellard and one conversion to Byrne, to take Cyclones to a half-time lead of 19-5.
Cyclones started the second half on fire and exerted real pressure on the Uni line and within 15 minutes had posted further tries to No. 8 Brad Urquhart and centre Tim Acason.
Jake Carr converted one of the tries to take Cyclones to a 31-5 lead. A combination of Cyclones taking the foot off the pedal and Uni introducing a fresh cohort of grade players saw Cyclones lead reduced to the final score of 31-19.
The match analysis determined that the soft finish had to be avoided in future but the game plan execution was almost perfect.
The team travels to Strathpine to take on Pine Rivers Pumas with a 3pm kick-off tomorrow.
