5 biggest talking points from Western Clydesdales’ win over Tweed Seagulls

The Western Clydesdales were back to their best on Saturday with a stunning performance against title rivals Tweed Seagulls. Check out the five biggest talking points from the end-to-end clash here.

Georgia Sim scores for the Western Clydesdales against Tweed Seagulls. Picture: Benny Hassum Photography

In a battle between two sides eager to make a mark in finals, the Western Clydesdales BMD Premiership side soared above the Tweed Seagulls to claim a 22-14 win on the road.

In an end-to-end 70 minutes of action, we reveal the five biggest talking points from Saturday’s clash.

Sim simply sensational

Georgia Sim had one of the games of the season for the Western Clydesdales as she was involved with almost everything that went well for the visitors.

In the first half alone, she scored two tries, made three linebreaks and had countless impressive runs that made her a tough customer for the Seagulls defence.

She continued to impress in the second half as she made another linebreak and also came up clutch with a crucial tackle to force a line dropout after an electric kick-chase.

The rugby league rookie has been a persistent threat on the right wing this season but Saturday’s performance was on another level.

Western Clydesdales player Ali Brigginshaw. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Leaders help steady the ship

After going winless in their last two games and facing a team expected to challenge not only for finals, but for the title, the Clydesdales needed to be at their best from the outset.

After a nervy opening five minutes where they made a couple of errors and allowed the home side to hit the front, the leaders within the starting 13 made their presence felt and helped swing momentum back in the Clydesdales’ favour.

Tara Reinke was at her unstoppable best with several big runs and tackles, while fellow co-captain Shenae Ciesiolka’s defensive efforts at fullback in the first half were superb.

The Origin star also helped set up one of Sim’s tries in the first half.

Meanwhile, Ali Brigginshaw’s elite playmaking ability allowed the Clydesdales to escape any further pressure in the early stages of the contest.

Tweed’s stellar offload game

The Seagulls’ offloading game was superb and created several opportunities for line-breaks and tries.

Tweed’s ability to extend the play and improvise from a late offload helped them gain countless additional metres and was a thorn in the side of an otherwise strong Clydesdales defence.

After the hosts made countless offloads in the first half, the Clydesdales managed to reduce the threat in the second half with an increased focus on securing the ball during the tackles.

As a result, tries were much more difficult to come by in the second half for Tweed.

Shenae Ciesiolka in action for the Western Clydesdales. Picture: Benny Hassum Photography.

Broncos duo combine for local star’s first Clydesdales try

In a play which wouldn’t have looked out of place under the bright lights of Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane Broncos duo Brigginshaw and Ciesiolka combined for the latter’s first try of the BMD Premiership season.

A stellar pass from the halfback opened a gap in the defence for Ciesiolka and from there, there was no one on the field who was going to stop her as she ran in to score her first try as a Western Clydesdale.

Clutch defence from Clydesdales

One of the only areas of concern for the Clydesdales this season has been the way they have closed out games, however, those concerns were quashed on Saturday thanks to some exceptional pieces of defence from the away side.

With an eight-point lead heading into the final minutes, the Clydesdales took their defensive efforts to another level as they forced several incompletions from the Seagulls late in the game.

One of those incompletions came from a knock-on off an amazing try-saving tackle which proved to be the dagger for Tweed.