Ipswich Jets v Mackay Cutters at North Ipswich Reserve on Saturday, April 14 – 3pm
Ipswich Jets
1. Michael Purcell 14. Denzel Burns 3. Pio Seci 17. Rory Humphreys 5. Wes Conlon 6. Julian Christian 7. Dane Phillips 8. Tyson Lofipo 21. Kierran Moseley 10. Nat Neale (c) 11. Ben White 12. Seb Pandia 13. Lock Ben Shea 4. Sam Caslick 9. Jayden Connors 15. Huskie Teutau 16. Rowan Winterfield 19. Mitch Carpenter
Coach: Ben Walker and Shane Walker
Mackay Cutters
1. Yamba Bowie 2. Kurt Wiltshire 3. Nathan Saumalu 4. Blake Atherton 5. Johnny Faletagoa’i 6. Nicho Hynes 7. Jack Hickson 8. Sam Hoare 9. Jayden Hodges 10. Jordan Grant 11. Left Second Row Mitchell Dunn 12. Right Second Row Shane Wright 13. Lock Thomas Murphy (c) 14. Jesse Dee 15. Lona Kaifoto 16. Bennett Leslie 17. Nicholas Brown 18. Jardine Bobongie 19. Darcy Cox
Coach: Steve Sheppard
LAST TIME
Round 24 2017
MACKAY CUTTERS 30 (Bennett Leslie, Yamba Bowie, Andrew Davey, Nicho Hynes, Kouma Samson tries; Jack Joass 5 goals) defIPSWICH JETS 20 (Marion Seve, Michael Purcell, Julian Christian tries; Jayden Connors 4 goals) at North Ipswich Reserve
Head to Head: Ipswich Jets 12 Mackay Cutters 7
ROUND 6 2018
The Cutters are coming to Ipswich and they do not bring a great past record with them. Mackay had a win last year in the penultimate round of 2017. Before that 30-20 win, they had not won in Ipswich since 2013. The Jets have won four out of the last six games between these two sides. The Jets have it over the Cutters in the overall wins 12-7.
The Cutters have won three times at the Reserve and once at Briggs Road in their history for four wins in Ipswich.
The Cutters have recorded one win so far in five games. Scoring 74 points and having 152 points scored against them.
The Jets are on three wins from five games and just about equal with 98 points for and 106 against.
The Cutters have lost two games in a row now and have lost their two games this season away from home. The Cutters average loss has been by a massive 20 points.
The Jets have won both their games at home this year.
CUTTERS
The Cutters will be keen to get their second win of the season this week. The Cutters are making too many errors and putting themselves under pressure. They made 13 errors against the Falcons. Kyle Laybutt will be vital to the Cutters controlling the game. He brings two NRL games for the Cowboys with him and uses his strong kicking game to help the Cutters get out of trouble. The Cutters made many simple mistakes against the Falcons and never let themselves be in the game. They did well to be down by six at half time.
Johnny Faletegoa’I has proven effective for the Cutters, he has been in their top three for making ground every week and in the loss to the Falcons still made the most ground and 170m for his team. Bennett Leslie makes the most tackles for the Cutters topping their tackle count this year with 163 tackles. The Cutters only had 46% of the ball against the Falcons and paid a heavy price. They could only make three line breaks compared to the Falcons five. The Cutters will be making sure they do those simple things right first on Saturday.
JETS
The Jets had a great win against the Pride, showing plenty of great qualities. They stayed in the fight, they did not drop their head and they came back. Let’s talk Jets’ forwards for a minute. Of the top five players in the Intrust Super Cup taking a run, the Jets have four. Seb Pandia 91 runs, Ben Shea 80, Nat Neale 78 and Ben White 65. What about metres gained for the Intrust Super Cup. The top three: Seb Pandia 817m, Ben Shea 814 and Nat Neale 777m. Ben Shea also leads the Intrust Super Cup for post contact metres with 362m. How much has Seb Pandia improved I hear you say- well last year he made 2548m from 21 games. Therefore, he has done 32% of that total already in five games. If you want that broken down a little bit more. 91 runs for Pandia mean about 18 hit ups a game and 163m a game. Ben Shea made 221m for the Jets against the Pride, the most for the game and the most a Jet has made this season. If the Jets forwards keep that up, any team will find it hard to stop their momentum. The Jets are just steamrolling over teams and then scoring tries as teams wear down.
Waiting to take advantage of the Jets’ forward monsters is a person like Michael Purcell. Purcell now has 39 tries from 42 games for the Jets. When you stop and remember the most Jets tries ever is Donald Malone with 67 well Purcell is tracking nicely to have a record one day. In 2018 Purcell has 400 minutes of football, 56 runs, 29 tackle breaks, four off-loads, seven line breaks, 551m and three tries. Pio Seci is another Jet back that is building nicely in 2018 and like the BOM website; I see some damage on the way for Mackay. Seci started the year just finding his way but the last three games I think he is starting to be around the ball more and be more confident. Seci now has 630m from his 63 runs, which is a nice neat 10m a run. On the other side of the ball he’s only missed seven tackles. Those legs! I said to my mate on Saturday check out Seci’s legs- he couldn’t believe how big they were.
Another home game and a chance for the Jets to win two in a row and three home games for the year from three.