Cody Walker bagged four tries - including the match winner in the dying stages of the match - to secure a gutsy 28-24 come-from-behind victory for the Bunnies over the Warriors on the Sunshine Coast today.
The first half was full of near-tries, with the men in the bunker doing the work of 8 games in the opening 40.
After the bunker denied a try to Souths in the third minute, the scoring opened in the 12th minute off the back of some Tuivasa-Sheck brilliance. He got the ball on the right side, 10 metres from the Bunnies line, but had no options, so he shimmy-shaked his way back to the middle and then exploded through a half gap before just managing to get the ball down for a try. Harris-Tavita converted.
Two more tries were turned down by the bunker in the next 6 minutes, one for each side. The fifth try of the match sent to the bunker was in the 20th minute and this resulted in points, when Walker scored himself a freak try. He put in a mistimed grubber, then kicked it a second time and it hit the upright. He fell on the ball and rolled over towards the line and just got it down for a good try under the sticks. Reynolds converted.
90 seconds later and the Bunnies were in again. Cook exploded out of dummy half on the short side and blitzed the edge defence, before delivering a stunning ball between two defenders to Walker, who raced away to score under the sticks. Reynolds converted.
Just on the half hour mark, the Warriors struck back. Burr with a great run, hit and spun then got an offload to Tevaga who barged his way over the line to score a powerful try under the sticks. Harris-Tavita made no mistake with the conversion.
The second half saw the scoring continue on the back of another great run from Tuivasa-Sheck. From the next tackle, Harris-Tavita got a great ball on the left side to Harris, who was running a splendid angled line back in toward the posts, broke through the line and scored under the posts. Harris-Tavita nailed another goal.
Some great second phase play by the Warriors 7 minutes later saw them skip ahead. An offload from Papalii to Tuivasa-Sheck, who nearly snuck through the line, then offloaded. The ball got out to Blair who ran to the right side before getting a one-handed offload away to Kata, who ran back to the centre before passing to Lisone storming onto the pass. He busted through a tackle and slammed the ball down over the line near the uprights for an exciting try. Tevita-Harris again converted.
At the hour mark, Souths began their fightback. They caught the Warriors right side defence short of numbers after a great set and off the back of a great run by Walker. Knight got a good ball to Walker, who engaged the defender and then dished to Lowe who strolled through the huge gap to score on the left side. Reynolds converted.
With 8 minutes remaining, Walker scored his third try. Cook sauntered up to the line and hit Walker running onto the ball, who forced his way over to the left of the sticks to score. Reynolds converted to level the scores.
In the 75th minute, Harris-Tavita had a shot at field goal but it narrowly missed. 2 minutes later, Reynolds had a shot, but it was charged down, however the Bunnies regathered and got a fresh set.
With Reynolds set for the field goal on the 4th tackle, Cook instead went left to Walker, who stepped back inside and then speared himself head first into the defence to just get a lick of paint of the tryline on the ball to score the match winner. Reynolds failed to convert.