JAMBEROO Superoos and Kiama Knights have fought out one of the best matches of the VB South Coast Group 7 first grade competition, with Jamberoo returning to the winners list after holding on for a thrilling 20-18 win at Kevin Walsh Oval on Saturday.
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In a match that had plenty of highlights, including seven spectacular tries and some brutal defence, the home side were forced to withstand a whirlwind Knights finish and now sit in equal third spot with their opponents, behind Gerringong Lions and Shellharbour City Sharks as the battle for a top-three spot warms up.
The Superoos welcomed back Trent Ryan for the first time this year, and it only took the classy fullback five minutes to stamp his mark on the game when he chimed into the backline and powered his way over out wide.
Dean Watling missed the conversion, for Jamberoo to lead 4-nil.
The Knights hit back in the 15th minute when, after sustained pressure, an inside ball from five-eighth Blake Rickard found lock Jake Toohey on the charge and he crashed over and half Cameron Vassoler landed the conversion for the Knights to take a 6-4 advantage.
The game see-sawed from end to end as referee Sam McDonald allowed the game to flow, and just when it appeared the Knights would take their lead to halftime, Superoos captain/coach Jono Dallas took advantage of a sliding defence on the line to dart through a narrow gap and dive over out wide.
Watling landed the conversion and the home side went to the break with a 10-6 lead.
Less than 10 minutes after the break Jamberoo went further ahead when former-Knight Corey Grigg latched onto a bomb close to the line and scored beside the posts and with Watling again on target, the Superoos looked headed for a comfortable win at 16-6.
However as often happens, a mistake from the restart handed possession back to the Knights and after two successive penalties the Knights made the Superoos pay when Vassoler sent Toohey crashing over for his second try and Vassoler converted and it was game on again at 16-12 with 20 minutes on the clock.
The crunch play came with 13 minutes remaining when Jamberoo’s former-Country centre Jake Clarke did superbly to make space down the sideline for winger Ben Barnard and the speedster showed all his class to beat the cover defence to dive over in the corner.
Watling’s conversion was wide, but with just over 10 minutes remaining the Superoos led 20-12.
However the Knights showed why they had won five successive matches with another fightback and the combination of Vassoler and captain Kieran Poole on the left edge saw the half slip a great pass into a narrow gap in the defence and Poole did the rest.
Vassoler again converted and with five minutes remaining the difference was back to just two.
However it proved to be too-little too-late for the Knights as Jamberoo celebrated an epic win that has got their season back on track.
In a game where there really wasn’t poor player on either side, Dean Watling, Trent Ryan, Brendan Smith, Corey Grigg and Jake Clarke were among the best for Jamberoo, while Vassoler, Cameron Whittaker, Keiran Poole and Josh Toohey were outstanding for the Knights.
