The Illawarra Cutters stormed into the NSW Cup top-two with a convincing 44-18 victory over Wentworthville at WIN Stadium on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Doubles to Nathan Green and fellow NRL alum Charly Runciman helped seal the win that sees them leapfrog Wentworthville into second place and, with a final round bye, just one win away from cementing a top-four berth.
The home side got away to a slow start as the Magpies skipped out to an early 12-0 lead after just 15 minutes before Green's first try pegged the lead to 12-6.
Tries to Kiti Glymin and halfback Drew Hutchison saw the Cutters go ahead 16-12. A Dylan Farrell intercept try five minutes from the break proved a crushing blow for Wenty the Cutters' extended to 22-12.
Green secured his double on the stroke of half-time for the Cutters to establish a 28-12 lead.
Fullback Kyle Eather opened the second-half scoring with a try in the 50th minute before Runciman's late try in the half put the game away at 44-18.
"It wasn't the prettiest performance in terms of cohesion but we had some really good individual performances," coach Scott Logan said.
"We probably didn't compete the way we would have liked in the first 10-15 minutes. We were a bit off in terms of our ball control and our contact and pressure in defence wasn't quite where we needed it to be.
"Once we got the defence right we put seven or eight good sets together and when you have that type of ball it's only a matter of time before you post points but to post 28 before half-time was pretty pleasing.
"That try [to Green] right on half-time was a handy one. We knew after that [at 28-12] they needed to be the first to score, so we really focused on our defence. We thought if we could get that right we could post a few tries in the back-end which we managed to do to put the game beyond doubt."