As the first season of the NRC drew to a close, Brisbane City met Perth Spirit at the spiritual home of Queensland rugby, Ballymore. It was a humid night in Brisbane and Ballymore filled up nicely as fans flocked to watch their team take on a Perth team who were showing great promise in their last few matches, particularly in their pack. Spirit upset Melbourne Rising last week with only their fourth win of the season to go through to the NRC final. Brisbane City, patchy on occasion, were looking to finish their season with a resounding win and take home the phone/toaster/trophy.
First Half
The match started in the usual fast NRC fashion with a break by Perth Spirit’s Robbie Abel down the sideline. Brisbane City forced the turnover, but Jake McIntyre’s kick didn’t find touch. After scrappy defense by City, Perth Spirit were on the scoreboard after only 3 minutes with a try to Junior Rasolea after a quick offload from Pek Cowan. Flyhalf Zack Holmes successfully converted.
Loose ball and loose passing from Brisbane City led to a turnover, but Perth Spirit couldn’t capitalise. The first try to Brisbane City came from a brilliant rolling maul off a lineout. Schatz drive forward, and the ball could have been either Gill’s or Frisby’s. Frisby left it and Gill took it and darted over the tryline. Flyhalf Jake McIntyre converted to level the score.
I had been expecting a dominant scrum from Perth Spirit (even with Stiles as Brisbane coach), but the Brisbane scrum absolutely dominated this match (perhaps sometimes assisted by The Hoff’s view of the scrum). Frisby’s ref management certainly came to the fore at scrum time and his constant niggle and commentary to Hoffman was a source of amusement (as a Brisbane supporter, anyway).
Dane Haylett-Petty (DHP) executed a fantastic try saving tackle on Matt Feaunati as he lost the ball forward. Then a possible try to Schatz was disallowed after he was held up over the line. Undeterred, the pack used their dominance in the 19th minute to drive the scrum over the Perth Spirit line for a penalty try, again converted by McIntyre.
A rare mis-step by Paraka at scrum time mean that City were penalised and Perth Spirit had the lineout feed. 10m out from the Brisbane City line, Perth swamped the City players, drawing them in to the maul. Zack Holmes booted a beautiful cross field kick into the in goal area where City’s Brando Va’aulu struggled under the high ball. Perth Spirit’s DHP suffered no such issues, taking it in the air and crashing to ground to score the try. Holmes pushed the conversion wide to the right.
Both teams at times struggled to build phases and execute basic and consistent skills – neither team particularly impressed with accuracy at passing and Brisbane City struggled at the breakdown to be totally effective. Robbie Abel scrambled over the line to score Perth Spirit’s third try after City weren’t fast enough to get back into the defensive line – his sixth try in five matches. Holmes converted successfully. The score was 21-16 to Perth Spirit.
Pek Cowan was penalised for the Spirit, and McIntyre gained some brilliant metres with a kick into touch. The Brisbane City pack once again dominated setting up another rolling maul off the back of the lineout, with Hoffman signalling advantage. Paraka split off and dived across the line for his first try of the night. The Ballymore crowd had their hearts in their mouths as McIntyre’s conversion drifted out and then curled back in beautifully to enable City to take the lead as both teams went to the sheds.
Second Half
The second half started and was noteable for a thumping Liam Gill hit on Perth Spirit flanker Brynard Stander, which was followed by a thumping Liam Gill hit on Brynard Stander (this time of the fist variety). The defense for both sides was scrappy and scrambling as both teams struggled to find dominance and capitalise on loose ball and loose play. At this stage Brisbane City were losing the battle of the backs and Perth Spirit weren’t having any effect at scrum time.
Nothing went Spirit’s way as McIntyre grubbered across field and Haylett-Petty left it, only for it to roll into touch. Liam Gill then charged down a Perth kick, to keep the pressure in the opposition 22. After continuous penalties against the front row, Perth Spirit started to bring on their bench with the aim of turning around their scrum fortunes. The Brisbane City scrum held strong and Paraka crossed for his second try of the night; McIntyre missed the conversion.
Both Kevin Foote and Nick Stiles used more of their bench to bring fresh legs and ticker to the match, hoping to close it out. Brisbane City maintained their dominance at scrum time even with a new front row, and the rolling maul continued to be effective.
Unusually for an NRC match, scoring had tightened up in the second half as defense became the focus. Brisbane City forced the turnover and Frisby flicked to Schatz who went outside to Va’aulu who found Junior Lalofi, and he danced along the sideline to score in the corner. The slow kick by McIntyre was successful and Brisbane City looked to have locked it up at 37-21.
Brisbane City starved Perth Spirit of possession in the last 5 minutes, stopping them from building phases. After the buzzer Spirit were gifted the ball by The Hoff as he yellow carded City centre (snort!) Toby White for kicking the ball away/into touch which he did at the same time Hoffman blew the penalty, so it was a tough bill to swallow and the Ballymore crowd were not happy. There was a somewhat anti-climatic finish as Perth Spirit crossed for a consolation try by reserve Davis Tavita. The kick by Holmes was unsuccessful, but by this stage City were celebrating their win – inaugural winners of the National Rugby Championship 37-26.
Among diehard fans, the NRC has been thought of as a fantastic comp with a good vision for Australian rugby, but it certainly did struggle to build awareness in the broader rugby community, and broader community.
The crowd number tonight was a testament to the way Queensland Rugby, and the Reds, ran the two Queensland teams. Rather than bring in a separate marketing and communications team, they kept it in house and used their existing social networking channels to build the brand and promote the teams and matches. This meant that they already had a large audience without having to build it. And tonight it delivered – Queensland and Ballymore was the right place to have the final – almost 8000 there to witness history, and hopefully the first of many years of NRC.
[one_third last=”no”]
The Game Changer
I thought it might have been the loss of Kerevi before the match even started, but the total dominance of the Brisbane City scrum led to at least three tries and changed the momentum, and the game, several times. [/one_third] [one_third last=”no”]
The G&GR MOTM
Ok – I know Gill got MOTM, but with his punch (which could have been red-carded), he is ruled out for me (he had a superb match other than that). Paraka had a cracker up front and managed to put away two tries so he gets my vote. [/one_third] [one_third last=”yes”]
Players to watch
Dane Haylett-Petty (DHP) had yet another cracker match, and his try in the first half was super.
[/one_third]
The Details
Crowd: 7889
Score & Scorers
[one_half last=”no”]Brisbane City: 37
Tries:
Gill 7′
Paraka 36′, 57′
Lalofi 74′
Penalty 19′
Conversions:
McIntyre 8′, 19′, 38′, 75′
[/one_half]
[one_half last=”yes”]Perth Spirit: 26
Tries:
Rasolea 3′
Haylett-Petty 23′
Abel 33′
Tavita 81′
Conversions:
Holmes 4′, 34′
[/one_half]
Cards & citings
Yellow: Brisbane City Toby White 81′
