RUGBY LEAGUE
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Jamberoo produced one of the bravest fightbacks in club history and one of the most amazing all-time revivals by a visiting team ever at Cec Glenholmes Oval on Sunday.
The Superoos have rarely enjoyed success against Warilla and were headed for another defeat when they trailed 30-6 early in the second half.
But the Roos suddenly bounced into action, peeling off 28 unanswered points to snatch a remarkable 34-30 victory.
The Gorillas uncharacteristically wilted under the pressure, carelessly falling off tackles and coughing up possession in the final 20 minutes.
Long-time Warilla officials struggled to recall the last time the Gorillas gave up such a big lead on home turf.
Jamberoo captain-coach Jono Dallas was full of praise for his side.
"I could not be prouder," he said.
"When it got to 30-22 and we still needed two tries, we could've easily panicked, but we did the opposite. The boys just stuck to it and played every set as it came, and in the end it's hands down the best win as a club we've ever had.
"We're usually on the other side of a result like that, getting off to a big lead and letting it slip, so we know what it's like. It's good to be on the other side of it.
"When you beat a top team in any way it's good for the confidence, but when you win like that against a team that we've never had much success against, it really helps the belief.
"You can't coach belief, and when players physically do something like that, they can draw on it for the rest of the year. We did it for ourselves and we've seen now that it's possible to do something like that."
The Gorillas dominated the first half, as Chad Lisch, Josh Kent (2) and Ben Cotter all crossed for tries.
Jamberoo opened their account with Ben Jones's try just before half-time, but Warilla trumped that with Jay Knick's try early in the second half.
The Superoos struck back with Canadian winger Trent Bourke's try and cut the deficit to 30-16 with Luke Gilmore's converted try.
Winger Ben Barnard scored in the corner and Matt Jarrett crashed over to make it 30-28 with 10 minutes remaining.
The comeback was complete five minutes later when veteran five-eighth Matt Coelho backed up after a line break and scored under the posts.
"In the first half our line speed wasn't good and our talk wasn't good," Dallas said.
"I told the boys if we could just relax and get our defence right I thought the points would come."
Warilla coach Peter Hooper hopes his side learned a valuable lesson.
"Losing like that at home is not very comfortable.
"There was a lot of inexperience in the end. We took poor options when we should've consolidated. We went away from what we've worked hard at in the past few weeks."
The Gorillas were without injured captain Aaron Henry.
"Aaron's got a concern with his arm.
"He's been for a scan and we're just waiting," Hooper said.
"We had a few out and had a couple of injuries during the game, but no excuses whatsoever."
Nowra-Bomaderry cruised to a 56-22 win over Albion Park-Oak Flats in Sunday's other game.