Jets Pay The Price For Missed Scoring Opportunities

The Sydney Airport Jets? recent winning sequence ended yesterday at Canberra Stadium when they lost the VB Premier League match of the round to the Canberra Raiders by 36-22. This game was much closer than the final score indicates, with Newtown missing four second half try-scoring opportunities after the scores had been tied at 10-all at half-time. The Jets trailed by 28-22 with fifteen minutes remaining and had three agonisingly-close try scoring chances in the last ten minutes.

Jets forwards Keith Galloway and Andrew Lomu turned in outstanding games and must be challenging strongly for places in the Sharks NRL team. Both Galloway and Lomu made ground every time they had the ball and took the Jets into attacking positions. Kevin Kingston, Sam Isemonger and James Stosic also impressed in the forwards. Russell Aitken was the best of a Newtown backline that was below par yesterday.

The Raiders ultimately won this match because they did the smaller things better. Their kicking game was superior to Newtown?s and three of the Raiders tries came from pin-point high kicks that effectively isolated the Newtown wingers.

Three disallowed tries to Newtown in the last ten minutes and two late tries to the Raiders settled the final outcome of what was an absorbing match.

The Sydney Airport Jets take on the Penrith-St.Marys Cougars in the VB Premier League at the Western Weekender Stadium, St.Marys on Saturday (May 21st) with an early 1.00pm kick-off. The Jets had the bye in the Jim Beam Cup last weekend and play away to Asquith this Sunday (May 22nd) at Storey Park at 3.00pm.