Queanbeyan Whites comeback leads to 13-point win over Tuggeranong Vikings in John I Dent Cup preliminary final

They had reason to celebrate, after the Whites turned their lacklustre first half performance into a 13-point win over Tuggeranong Vikings, the 24-37 scoreline securing their grand final spot.

The Vikings seemed determined to avoid a repeat of last week, and took the lead four minutes in when Lennix Tovo crossed.

And so were the visitors, so fullback Nathan Carroll called for the tee when a penalty was given in front of the posts to get the Whites on the scoreboard 4-3.

Next Vikings scrumhalf Ryan Lonergan directed play off a scrum deep in their own half to get them out of danger.

Lonergan went short side, isolating Whites scrumhalf Mitchell Douch, and utilising the speed of Maika Ravouvou on his left.

It resulted in a lot of yardage, and a rolling maul off a line out that the Vikings capitalised on through Remsy Lemisio to extend their lead.

Another rolling maul gave the home side their third, with Ravouvou making it 17-3.

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The Vikings had crossed three times before Queanbeyan got one of their own back with the final play of the half through Carroll.

The No. 15 crossed for Queanbeyan and converted the kick to make it a seven-point game heading into the sheds.

Carroll admitted his side were passive in the first half, and the half-time chat focused on belief, before adding how proud he was of his side's comeback.

"The chat was like, 'We can do it', and we knew that we had the wind coming down in our favour in the second half," he said.

"The forwards really owned up in set piece. We got our ball back and us backs can play on top of that. So it was super handy.

"It's been a huge effort all season. We didn't deserve to be in the semi-finals at the start of the season, but we've worked our way up and we deserve to be in the grand final."

Memories of last weekend came flooding back for both sides seven minutes into the second half.

The Whites forced the Vikings to defend multiple sets on their line, and made the home side's backline pay for a number of failed clearance kicks.

Zane Marolt's try, and Carroll's subsequent conversion, made it 17-17.

And from here the Whites put their foot on the pedal and made the second half all about them, keeping the Vikings scoreless until the final minute.

Vikings' coach Nick Scrivener conceded losing key frontline players to injury, including loosehead prop Maxime Turrel, made things difficult for his side.

"We applied pressure, and we played quite well in the first," he said.

"We wanted to keep that momentum going, but there's was a number of changes, I mean we lost our front row.

"We just did a couple of silly things into the wind, and they took field position off us pretty easy with a couple of long kicks."

Tuggeranong could not get near their 22 once play restarted, and found themselves on the back foot again as the Whites kicked deep.

Before winger Harry Buckley crossed to give Queanbeyan the lead for the first time in the match, and Carroll extended it to an eight-point lead with another penalty-kick.

Vikings' fans were silenced when Whites' Silafono Titiuti crossed for their fourth, putting his side up by 15 points.

But Queanbeyan were not done, they had one more try in them. Winger Jackson Stuart crossed in the 77th minute to seal the Whites' win.

Although the scoreline was not set yet, with the Vikings awarded a penalty-try to end the game 24-37.

The Whites' 13-point win on Saturday delivered the biggest margin in the John I Dent Cup finals series this season.

The Whites will regroup this week and prepare to face the Canberra Royals in the grand final next weekend for the final dance.

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