Pre-Easter duel tests Jets' early form

The Jets will play the Capras on Thursday night looking to win three games in a row for the first time since they won from rounds 7-10 last season.

COLTS FIGHTBACK: Wally Pegler, of Western Mustangs, pursues Ipswich Jets player Austin Masiutama in last Sunday's under 20 rugby league match in Toowoomba. The Jets Colts fought strongly in the second half to lose 26-20. Picture: Kevin Farmer

THE Ipswich Jets will kick off the Easter weekend in Rockhampton hungry for more than eggs.

The Jets will play the Capras on Thursday night looking to win three games in a row for the first time since they won from rounds 7-10 last season.

The Jets head to Rockhampton with an impressive record against the Capras. They have played there 21 times for 14 wins and seven losses.

Overall, the record between the two clubs is Ipswich 28 wins, Capras 12, with one draw.

The last time the Capras beat the Jets was in 2016 - 23-14 in Rockhampton.

The Jets and Capras clashed in the last round of 2017 with the Jets winning 44-4 and Julian Christian scoring three tries.

The Jets are coming off a win over the Tigers while the Capras lost by two to the Cutters in Mackay.

The Capras have won one game out of three. That came in round one when they beat the Tigers by a point.

The Capras have scored 47 points compared to the Jets' 64.

In defence, the Capras have let in 68 while the Jets have conceded 66.

Capra to watch

BIG Dave Taylor will have an impact.

In the first three rounds of 2018, Taylor has been getting his minutes up. He started with 54 minutes, then 70.

Taylor can still destroy a side with his running game.

In round one, he took the Tigers on and came away with 179m of destruction.

Taylor will be the target to make work.

Double efforts are not Taylor's friend and the Jets' little men will be looking to go at him.

Taylor has given away seven penalties this season because players exploit his slow movement.

The other target will be second rower Dave Cowhan who can get his spacing wrong and leave too much for the player outside and inside to cover.

Taming the Tigers

THE Jets got out to a great lead against the Tigers and then the Tigers came back to make me a bit nervous last weekend.

Captain Nat Neale was outstanding and the Jets' other bash brother Ben Shea made a great contribution.

Ipswich's other forward playing a huge role is Seb Pandia. He leads the Intrust Super Cup with 63 runs from three games. Shea is second on 46.

They are both also first and second in metres gained for the ISC with 554m for Pandia and 465m for Shea.

Kierran Moseley's calming influence was impressive. When the Tigers started to come back, he was a voice of reason.

Pio Seci is building nicely. He has been getting his minutes up and his involvement has increased since round one.

Marmin Barba had a shoulder injury and will have to recover from that to play this week.

The Jets did a job on Tigers fullback Scott Drinkwater.

Before he came up against the Jets, Drinkwater was leading the competition for line breaks from the first two games.

Against the Jets Drinkwater looked a bit lost.

The Jets had not beaten the Tigers at Langlands since July 2014, when they won 22-18.

Before that win in 2014, the Jets hadn't won there since 2010.

Twice in eight years shows what a big win Saturday was for the Jets.

New arrival

ISIMEELI Hafoka made his debut against the Tigers and was Jet number 591.

Isi is a great Jets story. He has been at the club for five years in the lower grades waiting and working towards his chance.

On Saturday, Huskie Teutau presented him with his Jets' number and jumper.

Isi bravely put his body in between the ball and Easts' winger Jarrod McInally in the last few seconds of the game to deny Easts the winning try.

Isi was stretchered off after the incident but has recovered from his brave effort.

Magic milestones

CO-COACHES Ben and Shane Walker notch 100 wins from 175 games with seven draws.

Dane Phillips is on 118 games and is the seventh most capped Jet.

Marmin Barba needs two points for 350 for the Jets.

Michael Purcell needs two points for 150 points for Ipswich.

Wes Conlon has 387 points. He has the fourth most for the Jets.

Team challenge

THE challenge for the Mal Meninga boys was to back-up a good win against Townsville with a similar gritty performance against the Western Mustangs.

That is exactly what the Jets did with a tough 28-20 win.

Not only did they record a back-to-back wins, they also broke a Toowoomba hoodoo, which dates back nearly five years at Clive Berghofer Stadium.

In the second half, the boys again started strongly and skipped out to a two-try lead. However, the Mustangs showed their usual persistence and fought back to be behind by two points with about 10 minutes remaining.

Ty Marshall came up with the play of the game to stop a Mustangs player attempting to score a try after they knocked back an easy chance to level up after a penalty. Thankfully, the boys were able to steady and Tom Casey scored the match-winner late in the second half.

"It was pleasing to secure another gritty win and the boys will take confidence that they can hang on in any situation,'' coach Todd Riggs said.

"We will need it again with the short turnaround against Wynnum on Thursday at Norths Ipswich Tigers."

Magic speech

THE Colts took on the Mustangs and trailed 20-0 at half time.

Colts coach Brendon Marshall handed out the magic speech and in the second half the Jets came back to just lose 26-20.

"I was really happy with the second half,'' Marshall said. "They must be getting sick of me repeating myself because they started doing it and we looked really good.

"It was really promising and great to see, we looked good when we play football."

The Colts will take on Wynnum on Saturday.

Cooper's stat

THE Jets have missed 126 tackles in three games at an average of 42.

A cold beer with . . .

We pulled out the Lord Mayoral robe and sat down for a beer with Ipswich Mayor Andrew Antoniolli to discuss the Jets.

Who is your favourite Jet? Too many. They include Dane Phillips, Richard Pandia, Wes Conlon, Billy McConnachie. The whole team are all great blokes.

What do you love about going to Jets games? Passion of the supporters.

You went to North Ipswich School. Any special memories from the North Ipswich Reserve as a child? I played in an under-10 grand final there.

Which team is your NRL team? Broncos.

Who is your all-time favourite Ipswich footballer? Allan Langer.

Originally published as Pre-Easter duel tests Jets' early form