Caloundra loses in penalty finish

A CONTROVERSIAL last-minute penalty allowed Maroochydore to snatch a three-point victory in yesterday's Caloundra RSL Premiership match against Caloundra.

Maroochydore’s James Turvey runs the ball over the Caloundra defence. Picture: Cade Mooney

A CONTROVERSIAL last-minute penalty allowed Maroochydore to snatch a three-point victory in yesterday’s Caloundra RSL Premiership match against Caloundra.

With scores locked at 10-all, Caloundra was penalised for not releasing the ball, but the penalty could have gone the other way as the Maroochydore player did not roll away after making the tackle.

Swans fullback Lasaro Manamoli slotted the penalty goal to give Maroochydore an important 13-10 victory and keep alive its hopes of pinching second spot from Noosa in the late stages of the season.

Swans coach Doug Hauff stopped short of saying his side deserved the win, but praised his players’ ability to grind out a tight victory.

“We always seem to have trouble with Caloundra. If you look at the stats now, there’s only five points between us in three games this year,” he said.

“It was a bit disappointing from us and we talked about that at half-time.

“I think Caloundra were very enthusiastic.

“You graft it out. There were a lot of stoppages, which didn’t suit us.

“We’re a more fluent team, but it just kept going scrum, line-out, scrum, line-out.”

Swans outside centre Cole Dalton did the damage with two tries.

Caloundra flyhalf Mitch Turner scored all of the Lighthouses’ points – a try, conversion and a penalty.

Turner had a chance to break the 10-all deadlock with four minutes remaining but his penalty attempt from 30 metres went wide.

Manamoli had a shot from about the same distance and it drifted just wide of the uprights, too. He then attempted a field goal, which did not go close.

He made the most of his last chance, however, slotting the controversial goal from in front of Caloundra’s bench to rub salt into the wounds of the gallant Lighthouses.

Hauff said the Swans ran into a side determined to cement its spot in the finals.

“I think Caloundra want to ensure fourth spot because Caboolture aren’t far behind them,” he said.

The Swans face unbeaten University, which smashed Caboolture 61-5 yesterday, next weekend and Hauff admits his side needs to improve if it is to challenge the premiership favourite.

“We need to be a bit more aggressive at the breakdown,” he said.

“We tended to be a bit flat in the backs and were passing wide balls. We’ll get caught out if we do that.

“It’s a big game. I counted 17 mistakes in 17 minutes, so we’ve got to go and clean that up.

“We had a great training run on Thursday night, but for some reason we just weren’t mentally prepared today.”

MAROOCHYDORE 13

Cole Dalton 2 tries; Lasaro Manamoli pen

CALOUNDRA 10

Mitch Turner try, pen, con

Other matches: University 61 def Caboolture 5; Fraser Coast 34 def Nambour 22

Originally published as Caloundra loses in penalty finish