A difficult couple of days for the Roosters affiliate clubs saw the Glebe Dirty Reds fall to the Kaiviti Silktails on Saturday, while the Ipswich Jets suffered another defeat at the hands of the Townsville Blackhawks in the Queensland Cup.
Despite falling short in their Round 16 match to the South Sydney Rabbitohs, the North Sydney Bears claimed the inaugural Mario Fenech Cup with a higher aggregate score than their opponents.
North Sydney Bears
The North Sydney Bears claimed the inaugural Mario Fenech Cup with an aggregate score of 56-38 over the South Sydney Rabbitohs on Sunday afternoon.
Despite falling short in the Round 16 match, the Bears did just enough to claim the cup in a close 24-16 encounter.
South Sydney established a strong early lead with tries to Shaquai Mitchell and Dean Hawkins, giving them a 12-0 advantage after 20 minutes.
The Bears responded quickly, clawing back four of those points with a try to winger Jamon Wormleaton.
However, they couldn’t maintain the momentum and found themselves down 18-4 at the break as Tom Carr crossed the stripe for the Rabbitohs.
Another try to South Sydney just nine minutes into the second half left the Bears with a 24-4 mountain to climb in the final 30 minutes.
Wormleaton bagged his second with 15 minutes left to play, giving North Sydney a necessary spark.
Despite finding the stripe once again through Josh Bergamin seven minutes later, the Bears were unable to complete the comeback and eventually fell 24-16.
Ipswich Jets
The Ipswich Jets suffered a 34-18 loss at Jack Manski Oval as they visited the Townsville Blackhawks in Round 14 of the Queensland Cup on Saturday afternoon.
The game was set to be a contest with the sides exchanging blows in the opening 20 minutes as Clayton Mack and Brendan Elliott scored for their respective sides to lock the game up at six-all.
A try to front rower Riley Price allowed the Blackhawks to double their lead before it was reduced to two with Ipswich winger Ricco Falaniko crossing for a try.
Townsville went on to establish a convincing 24-10 half-time advantage with tries to Cade Maloney and Jaelen Feeney.
They picked up where they left off early in the second half, extending their lead to 32-10 after just 10 minutes with Jodeci Baker-Tiraha crossing the stripe and Feeney securing a double.
The Jets responded quickly with a try to Dominic Macumboy, but unfortunately were unable to find any more points until the final moments of the match when Denzel Burns found the line to finish the game in a 34-18 defeat.
Glebe Dirty Reds
Visiting the Kaiviti Silktails at Churchill Park Lautoka in Fiji, the Glebe Dirty Reds were overcome 42-14 in Round 12 of the Ron Massey Cup on Saturday.
Despite drawing first blood just three minutes into the contest through a Kayd Donkin try, Glebe quickly fell behind by a considerable margin after conceding four tries in the first 15 minutes.
They showed some resistance by hitting back with a try to centre Noel Aukafolau, but the Silktails proved too strong as they piled on four more tries after that.
A consolation to Salesi Malu added a few more points to the Dirty Reds’ tally, leaving them on the receiving end of a 42-14 deficit at full time.
