08.04.2007
By JON TUXWORTH
TRAILING with 10 minutes remaining and running into a southerly wind that could blow the stripes off a zebra, the Sunshine Coast Falcons could easily have dropped their heads against Norths at Quad Park last night.
Instead, they drew on what their coach Des Allen rates as their most valuable quality – their heart – to secure their first FOGS Cup win of the season 30-22.
With the breeze behind their back in the first 40 minutes, the Falcons took a 16-10 lead into the halftime break, and extended that lead to 20-10 shortly after half-time through a try to lock Dane Blewitt.
However, two tries to the visitors and a superb conversion from the sideline gave the Devils a 22-20 lead with time fast running out.
With seven minutes remaining, Falcons centre Mark Page put the home side back in front, before James Adamson sealed the win after swooping on a Norths' error close to the tryline.
Allen was brimming with pride after his side's gritty performance, particularly from his forwards, with Matt Keating leading the way.
"Matty had a big game and all the forwards played well tonight," he said.
"What I was really happy about was our four bench players, we showed a lot of improvement in that area.
"That's what we talked about at halftime, having to stick it right out. We made some fairly silly errors that let them back into the game, but as I keep saying there's no lack of heart in this team.
"We're not bigger than these other side but we're a bit bigger under that left nipple, mate."
While the Falcons showed plenty of guts, captain Clint Broomham conceded their discipline needed tidying up. Most of Norths' tries came on the back of penalties or simple errors like kicking the ball out on the full from kick offs.
"All of these games are won in the last ten minutes, so we knew we could still win (after Norths got in front)," Broomham said.
"They had every chance to win. We conceding some stupid penalties and we gotta pick our discipline up."
