Group 2 Rugby League: Wrap, results, standouts from round eight

One side has finally clicked into gear as it ran riot with some razzle dazzle football in a big win in Group 2 Rugby League.

Macksville turned it on with a big win over Coffs Harbour. Picture: D Wigley

Macksville has produced one of its best performances of the season so far as it thrashed Coffs Harbour 40-10 Allan Gillett Oval.

Zane Doolan and Clay Saville both bagged doubles as the Sea Eagles got off to a blistering start and led 28-4 at halftime before ultimately running in seven tries to two in the comfortable victory.

“We finally put it together,” said captain-coach Matt Hyland.

“We held onto the ball a lot better, finished our sets and got to our kicks, which helped lay the platform to get us through the game.”

New French halfback Romain Pallares, playing in his fourth games for the club, was excellent for the home side, scoring one try, setting up a couple of others and guiding the team around the park well as the attack really clicked.

Zane Doolan grabbed a double in the win. Picture: D Wigley

“He knows how to finish a set for us,” said Hyland. “He gives us that one extra half, we’ve always had one but he just gives us that second, so they can play off each other and finish our sets, which is a big thing.”

The victory is the Sea Eagles’ second in three weeks and sees the team leapfrog the Comets and move up into fourth in what is a congested mid-table logjam.

“We knew that we definitely needed to win because it was our halfway point of the year, so with a win we start the second half of the season on the right foot and hopefully we can build on that,” said Hyland.

Coming into the game smarting from a narrow two-point loss to Grafton last weekend, Macksville got an early opportunity in when an incorrect play-the-ball from the Comets handed the ball over in dangerous territory.

From here some nice work from five-eighth Rielly Laverty and Brad Southan saw the former go over for the first try of the match in just the third minute.

Southan was in the thick of the action, with the backrower pulling off a chargedown that lead directly to a try to Doolan to put the home side up 12-0 after just seven minutes.

The Sea Eagles were on fire as fullback Daniel Donovan made a break up field directly from the kick-off. A few plays later Pallares fed Wezley Brown through a gap for Macksville’s third try inside 10 minutes.

It had been a stunning start for the home side, however they were reduced to 12 midway through the half when Doolan was sent to the sin bin.

The Comets then capitalised shortly after when Ronan Singleton went over in the corner.

Ronan Singleton pulled on back for Coffs midway through the first half. Picture: D Wigley

However Macksville cancelled out the try when a lovely spread to the right put Pallares over on the half-hour mark.

The French playmaker then capped off an excellent first half with a beautiful grubber to set centre Clay Saville up for a try to give the home side a commanding 28-4 lead at the break.

The game followed a similar vein after the restart when Laverty gave Saville his second with a lovely short kick of his own before some razzle dazzle footy saw Doolan score an excellent team try under the sticks to make it 40-6 with 20 minutes to go.

Things threatened to get really ugly for the Comets, however they rebounded well in the final stages and scored a consolation late in the game through Petera.

Macksville 40 (Doolan 2, Saville 2, Laverty, Brown, Pallares tries; Pallares six goals) defeated Coffs Harbour 10 (Singleton, Petera tries; Baloh one goal)

In other round eight fixtures, Woolgoolga kept its unbeaten run at the top of the table going with a 34-18 victory over South Grafton while Sawtell defeated the Grafton Ghosts 40-22.