The Illawarra Cutters ended their run of outs in convincing fashion on Saturday, producing their best performance of their season to defeat Wests Tigers 26-14 at Campbelltown.
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Staring down the barrel of four straight defeats the Cutters needed their big guns to stand up and they delivered with front row pair Rory O'Brien and Shannon Wakeman producing dominant displays up front.
NRL veteran Kris Keating was also strong after starting the game at five-eighth before shifting to hooker, scoring a crucial try on the stroke of half-time and taking some pressure off young halves Drew Hutchison and Shannon Crook who also flourished.
Coach Scott Logan admitted being relieved at the result after letting a number of wins slip in recent weeks.
"I think we went out there with good intent and cemented that win early on," Logan said.
"We've made some errors over the last five weeks and haven't got the results we wanted.
"We knew we needed to defend a bit better. You're always going to make some errors at this level but we put a bit more pressure on ourselves ... more resilient and defend some of those errors.
"Apart from that last try when the game was basically over, I thought we defended very well and scrambled well for each other."
With the St George Illawarra Dragons dealing with injuries and suspension at the top level, O'Brien and Wakeman may have reminded Paul McGregor of their value with O'Brien earning man-of-the-match honours for a long stint on the paddock.
"Rory's effort last week was very good he had a really high workload ... we just needed to get a bit more quality from him and as we got that" Logan said.
"As for Wakey [Shannon Wakeman], he won't mind me saying he's been struggling for a couple of weeks.
"His game time off the bench hasn't been great but it was time for some of our more experienced players at this level to stand up - to get some confidence back and I thought he was really good for us in the middle."
The Cutters led 6-0 after just six minutes when Wakeman carried defenders across from close range and the margin extended to 10-0 in the 17th minute with Kiti Glymin - the cup's leading try-scorer - crossing after a 40-20 from Hutchison.
The Tigers hit back through winger Kurtis Rowe to cut the lead to 10-4 as half-time loomed before Keating seized on an offload from Fraser Alcock to burrow over on the stroke of half-time to lead 16-4.
The Tigers forced themselves back into the match through a try to Tim Moltzen but two penalty goals to Shannon Crook and a try to Charly Runciman sealed the win. Tigers prop Matthew Lodge scored a late consolation try to make the final score 26-14.