By Terry Liberopoulos
Rugby League Review
The Illawarra side have been crowned the best country side in Australia after edging out the Townsville Stingers 20-18 in the final of the Centenary Trophy.
Played as the curtain raiser to the third State of Origin match at ANZ Stadium, Illawarra held out a late rally from the Queenslanders to take home the trophy.
Illawarra opened up a 20-10 lead after former Western Suburbs Magpies lower grader Wes Hallam raced on to a pass from Ryan Smith to score in the 61st minute.
Townsville began their fight back when winger Steven Elliott caught a small kick from Darren Griffiths on the full to plant the ball down with 11 minutes left on the clock.
The Stingers added another four pointer five minutes later when centre Tremayne Bowie barged over from close range to score wide out and put the Stingers to within two points. Goal-kicker Billo Mosby was unable to level the scores from a difficult angle.
Illawarra dominated the first half, heading into the sheds after tries from Mark Corrigan in the 13th minute and Jarrod Boyd in the 36th minute but could have easily led by twice as much.
Townsville came out in the second half on fire. They started to get a roll on and nearly got us in the end, said Illawarra coach Brett Jones.
We had a few guys injured during the game and we also were missing Simmo (Reece Simmonds) to injury. But the players dug deep and full credit to them.
Illawarra 20 (Wes Mallam 2, Jarrod Boyd, Mark Corrigan tries; Boyd 2
goals) d. Townsville 18 (Mitchell Seri 2, Tremayne Bowie, Steven Elliott tries; Billo Mosby goal) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: David Munro.
Touch Judges: Nathan Hill, Adam Reid.
