Poor defence leads to cup losses

IT was a case of two steps forward, one step back for Ipswich’s under 16 and 18 teams on Saturday.

Ipswich lost 36-10 in the Mal Meninga Cup (under 18) and 32-14 in the Cyril Connell Cup (under 16) at Runaway Bay.

“It was a tough day,” Rugby League Ipswich manager Paul Lowe said.

“We probably were disappointing in both competitions, just on our performance compared to previous weeks.

“In the under 16s we’re probably just lacking at the moment with big men.”

It doesn’t help that half the squad are under 15 and of those, only three have played at division level previously.

Despite that the youngsters had displayed tremendous progress up until Saturday.

“We want to get to the end of the nine rounds and see a huge difference in their development,” Lowe said.

“We had in the first three rounds.

“(On Saturday) we dropped off a bit from where we were.”

Ipswich lacked the ruthless edge their opponents displayed in both games.

“The Gold Coast in both grades, when they had opportunities they executed quite well,” Lowe said.

“In defence there was certainly an issue where we’ve got to learn a lot more in terms of our patterns and our one-on-one tackles.

“At this level you pay for it.”

There were some encouraging signs with Lowe rating the efforts of the Ipswich under 18 back row of Elijah Umu, Sam Johnson and Bronson Tepa highly, while front rower Jack Brown battled gamely.

“His never say die attitude saw him competing the entire game,” Lowe said.

In the under 16s utility Lorenzo Vogel was among Ipswich’s best.

It doesn’t get any easier for Ipswich this weekend against Gold Coast Blue teams coming off wins over Redcliffe.