CARGO Blue Heelers are the 2008 Woodbridge Cup champions after defeating Manildra Rhinos 30-10 in Cowra on Sunday before a large crowd which paid $7500 through the gate.

Both sides started cautiously with some good sets in the early stages. Cargo opened the scoring when Stan Tulevu gathered a loose bomb to score after 13 minutes.

At the 16th minute mark, Manildra were on the attack but came unstuck when Cargo fullback John Rose intercepted and ran 80 metres to score under the posts for a 10-0 lead.

The Rhinos kept attacking but Cargo held strong with some solid defence, their forwards, led by Jed Reid, holding the big Rhinos pack, putting the big ball-playing forwards to ground. Cargo scored again soon after when experienced bench player Grant Spurr drew the defence and gave a well-timed pass to the danger man Tim Shepard, who sprinted away to score unopposed to extend Cargo’s lead to 16-0 at half-time.

Manildra’s woes were worsened in the 32nd minute when captain-coach Peter Townsend was sin-binned for 10 minutes. The break could not have come quicker for the Rhinos, who looked tired.

In the second half Cargo took up the attack once again and threw the ball around which saw Leon Sutherland score the try of the match. When captain-coach Nigel Thornberry chipped over the top Sutherland got a perfect bounce, kicked again and won the race to the line to score a great try, extending Cargo’s lead to 20-0 after 47 minutes.