THE Kiama Knights have extracted at least partial retribution for last year’s heartbreaking grand final loss with a 28-nil shellacking of premiers Jamberoo Superoos at Kevin Walsh Oval, in the opening round of the 2018 VB South Coast Group Seven season.
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In a dominant display, the Knights ran in six tries to nil to sound an early season warning to all contenders, while the Jamberoo side will go back to the drawing board and hope the impending return of a couple of players in the next couple of weeks will help them bounce back.
The game started disastrously for the home side, with a knock-on on the second tackle of the game giving the Knights possession, and centre Ethan Ford found the defence napping down the blindside to dive over in the corner for a 4-nil lead.
It got even worse for the Superoos minutes later when Kiama broke clear down the left flank and quickly spread the ball across field for right winger Matt Morris to fly over in the corner.
Half Cam Vazzoler missed both conversions, but with an 8-nil lead inside the first five minutes, the writing was well-and-truly on the wall for Jamberoo.
Jamberoo looked likely to open their account in the 20th minute when front-rower Jack Loveday stormed over next to the posts only to be recalled for a forward pass and just a minute later, the Knights had their third try when replacement front-rower Luke Sutton crashed over from close range, but Vazzoler inexplicably missed the conversion from in front of the posts and the Knights led 12-nil.
Jamberoo were clearly rattled and couldn’t get into their rhythm, with mistakes taking their toll, but just when they looked to have survived any more carnage before half-time, Ethan Ford showed his class and strength to skittle three defenders and score out wide.
Five-eighth Hamish McLaurin took over the kicking duties and slotted the conversion for an 18-nil half-time lead.
The second half opened with both sides still testing each other out and tempers spilled over midway through the half, with Ethan Ford and Jamberoo’s Corey Grigg sent to the sin-bin as Jamberoo went close to scoring before Vazzoler showed his amazing class when he stepped past a flat-footed defender to score under the posts and converted for 24-nil.
The Knights then put the exclamation point on the game with a sizzling passing movement that saw centre Callum Thistlethwaite race over wide out to round out the scoring.
Ethan Ford, Kieran Poole, Cam Cornell, Daniel Martin and Luke Sutton were among the best in a very good Knights team, while Jack Loveday, Luke Asquith and Josh Kent tried hard to lift the Superoos.
