A strong first half performance secured a 30-20 win for the SP Hunters over the Easts Tigers at home at the National Football Stadium this afternoon.
A crowd of 6, 950 turned up for the first home game of the season and four minutes into the game were treated to try from Stanton Albert. Ase Boas made no mistake converting to make it 6-0.
With the wind in their sails, the Hunters continued to dominate possession in the quest for more points.
Close to the line, the Hunters proved a handful for their opponents with Boas and the elusive Gahuna Silas directing play around the park.
Out of dummy half, Silas attempted to bulldoze his way over to score but was held up after it took four Tigers players to deny him a four pointer.
But the next play after brought the second try for the Hunters when Boas threw an inside ball to a charging Henry Wan to cross over.
A mistake from the restart nearly cost the Hunters dearly.
With a fresh set of six, the Tigers looked to have hit back through a try from Dean Britt.
But the pass that put him into score was called forward by referee Jarrod Cole.
It was the forwards scoring all the points for the home side in the first half, and the 30th minute witnessed the third try through David Loko who was put into a gap from some Boas magic.
Boas added the extras to make it 3/3 and push the lead out to 18-0, which was the half-time score.
A comedy of errors from both teams started the second forty minutes of play.
The tide soon turned in favour of the visitors who got their first points from a try to Charlie Galo right under the posts.
The Tigers were over the line again in the 66th minute through a try from Shane Neumann and after a successful conversion from Billy Walters, the score was now 18-12 with the game back in the balance.
After a quiet start to the season, Hunters five-eighth, Israel Eliab made his presence felt in a big way firstly setting up Adex Wera with a perfect cut out pass for Wera to run in for the Hunters first try of the second half right on the 70 minute mark.
Despite a double to Tigers centre Conor Carey, Eliab put the nail in the coffin in the 77th minute after a solo effort that saw him dance and step around some weary Tigers players and score to seal the win at home.
The man of the match was given to Hunters prop, Henry Wan.