THE Shellharbour Sharks have won their fourth straight match, dominating an under-strength Jamerboo Superoos 42-nil at Ron Costello Oval.
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Five unanswered first half tries laid the platform for Abed Atallah’s men, who themselves were missing a couple of players, to comprehensively defeat the reigning premiers by 42 points.
It was a scrappy start from Sharks - with a knock-on, a charged down kick and penalty in the play the ball, to give Roos strong field position in the opening five minutes.
But Jono Dallas’ troops couldn’t take advantage, as the scores remained locked nil-all.
On their first real attacking set inside Roos 20m line, thanks to a knock-on, the hosts score.
After spreading the ball wide, winger Jye Brooker was taken down by his opposite number.
But the following play, fullback Jason Gray caught the markers napping and scooted over from close range.
Matt Carroll converted for 6-nil after 13 minutes.
The hosts make it two in two minutes when second rower James Ralphs burst through the middle, beat three defenders and offloaded to Kiran Tranter on the inside to score under the sticks.
Carroll converted for 12-nil.
After a string of consecutive penalties, due to ill-discipline by the visitors, the Sharks had their third.
Five-eighth Sam Clune dummied a pass, stepped inside a defender and reached out to slam it down with one hand.
His halves partner Carroll converted for 18-nil midway through the first half.
With seven minutes to go before half-time, the hosts had their fourth.
Gray danced around after a scrum before putting forward Kade Sampson, a minute after coming on the field, into a hole to score untouched.
Carroll continued his perfect day with the boot, making it 24-nil.
Off the kick-off, Ezi Harper broke the line, ran 30 metres before passing to Carroll, who ran away to score in left corner.
The half failed to convert his own try – leaving it at 28-nil, which is how it remained until the break.
Five minutes after the resumption, the hosts extended their lead – once again on the back of a Roos error.
A slick backline play saw Clune put his fullback Gray into a hole and over for his second try of the afternoon.
Carroll failed to convert, as the lead grew to 32.
Despite Jamberoo looking the most likely to score, it was again the hosts who troubled the scorers next.
A shift from left to right saw Sampson, moved into the centres after a reshuffle due to Brooker’s head injury, stand up his defenders and offload to his winger Tamati Ulukita – who stepped inside Dean Watling to score.
Carroll converted to stretch the lead to 38.
The lob-sidded scoring continued in the final five minutes, following a smart play by Clune to put Ralphs into space down the sideline.
Two tackles later, Ryan McCracken broke the line and put a grubber in, which was picked up by Harold Snell to score the hosts’ eighth try of the match.
Carroll couldn’t convert – as it remained 42-nil, which is how it ended.
In the win, the hosts were led by Clune, Harper, Carroll and Gray while Luke Asquith, Corey Grigg and Dallas never gave up for the Roos.