Club rugby: Colts Team of the Week, women’s wrap
Club rugby: Souths Magpies players have soared into the Colts Team of the Week after a stunning upset win. See who else made the team here, plus the women’s best players.
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Souths Magpies were back in business and on the rebuild under coach Cian O’Connor after a stunning 31-14 win over 2021 grand finalist Easts.
Souths scored five tries. recovering from a near miss loss against University seven days earlier, to find their feet on a rain soaked Chipsy Wood Oval.
This time last season Souths were taking water and sinking fast, but some nice off-season recruits from GPS and AIC schools and the maturity of home grown juniors had contributed to an about face.
One of those was Brisbane Boys College premiership winner Harry McLaughlin-Phillips who played fly half outside the classy Willem Johnstone, the son of a Souths legend (Brett) who joined the Magpies from Nudgee College.
“It is hard to single anyone out today,’’ said coach O’Connor.
“It was a great performance from the lads across the board.
“They showed real fight for each other other and work extremely hard as a unit.’’
Upfront for Souths No.8 John Bryant, flanker Fraser Leslie and hooker Ben Murphy did very well against quality opposition.
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COLTS 1 TEAM OF THE WEEK - ROUND 1
COLTS 1 TEAM OF THE WEEK - ROUND 2
AIC UPSETS CONTINUE - ROUND 2 ACTION
At St Lucia, Brothers won 31-17 over University of Queensland after leading 24-nil at one stage.
Brothers scored five tries, the first of which came while the reserves were still working out which seat they would occupy for the match.
Brothers centre Tim Ryan, the best back in AIC First XV rugby last season, got his team on the scoreboard straight away with an amazing dash from 25m out, stepping past his defenders and diving in to the right corner to lead 5-0 early.
After some end-to-end footy, Brothers went 10-0 up through winger Robbie Mapa.
His fly half Benn Dellacourt set him up perfectly in the right corner with a pinpoint cut out ball which landed right in the breadbasket.
Brothers centre Hunter Lim excited the crowd with an incredible try straight after. Lim dummied his defender and charged straight through the line to score a magnificent 40m solo try to extend the lead at 17-0.
It was the Colts 2 call up Hunter Lim who showed off all the tricks in a first half battering. Lim made it two tries in the first half when putting on more fancy footwork to leave opposition defenders stuck in the mud. The centre barged over with some great post contact leg drive to give Brothers a 24-0 lead.
But UQ came back, and leading the way was No.8 Fergus Nasser.
With the bloodlines of a Wallaby - his uncle played for Australia and his cousin played for Queensland - Fergus Nasser is carving out his own path.
Nasser was a workhorse for UQ in a slippery game where forwards had to do a lot of rucking up the middle.
The No.8 took plenty of hard hit-ups to push his team beyond the advantage line and was a force in the scrum all afternoon.
University winger Ethan McFarland’s damaging ball running was a sight to see.
The big centre looked like a mix of Brisbane Bronco Payne Haas and Queensland Red Hunter Paisami.
And fellow winger Rhys Penny held down his wing extremely well in the first half, reading the Brothers offence well and shutting down their backline moves.
For Brothers, flanker Jack Condon, Dellacourt, Athen waia-McGuiggan and Lim were best.
UQ reserve Angus Ward scored a pick-and-drive try to begin the second-forty after applying constant try line pressure.
UQ coach Matt Ingram said: “ I thought our reserves came on and added a punch. Our back row was on fire today too. Angus Ward, Fergus Nasser, Jonathon Burnett and Benjamin Waller were great.”
His team made it two consecutive tries to begin the second half with excellent on the spot thinking from emerging Queensland Red young gun Tom Lynagh.
Lynagh, son of Wallaby great Michael, threw an amazing pass to fullback Tony Fuimaono who found Ben McMahon to score.
Lynagh showed the value of training with James O’Connor when slotting the conversion from the sideline. moments later, he kicked a 40m penalty goal to get his team within seven points with five minutes to go.
It was opposing flyhalf and Nudgee College old boy Benn Dellacourt who sealed a well deserved victory for Brothers. The outstanding No.10 mastering a grubber-kick into the in-goal area for reserve Lastus Auakai to dive onto to continue Brothers unbeaten season.
Brothers coach Matt Beaver said: “ Our first half was outstanding. Perfect wet weather footy. We didn’t play in our half for too long and put pressure on UQ to cough it up which they did a bit.”
“I was really happy with No.8 Tevita Mapa and his brother Robbie in their first Colts 1 start for us.”
He said Hunter Lim was outstanding coming up from Colts 2, “and to get two meat pies, I am really happy for him.”
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Like Souths, Sunnybank were also on the rebuild.
Although they started the season from a long way back in the field, the Dragons were also on the improve, losing 29-12 to imposing Wests.
“We are still moving forward and building,’’ said Sunnybank coach Brendan Underwood.
“Game management was a key factor in the match and we let ourselves down, just simple kick to touch or simple plays,’’ he added.
Sunnybank flanker Fehi Mahnia deservedly scored a try and won a position in our Team of the Week.
After a slow start Wests were starting to perform to their potential, winning 19-17 in round 4 against Bond Uni and now defeating Sunnybank.
Bulldogs coach Rob Roiri said on a wet track, the match was won upfront, with tighthead prop Patrick Lavenmai, captain Alec Robinson and Darling Downs winger Will Johnson performing strongly.
This was after Roiri’s forwards also rose to the challenge against Bond seven days early, with a 19-17 win aided by No.10 Lachlan Kerr’s performance.
At Hugh Courtney Oval, Bond Uni found themselves in a dogfight against Norths, with the home side ambushing Bond before losing 14-10.
The goal kicking of Ieuan Cornelius proved the difference, inching Bond ahead.
“It was a good win in the slop,’’ said Bond coach Brenden Jones.
Norths coach Dan Ritchie said he was again proud of his team’s performance, particularly their commitment and physical defence.
“Once again a high penalty count made things very difficult,’’ Ritchie said.
“Our players deserved better than that today.’’
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Fullback: Athen Waia-McGuiggan (Brothers)
Wing: Will Johnson (Wests)
Centre: Tony Fuimaono (University)
Centre: Hunter Lim (Brothers)
Wing: Rhys Penny (UQ)
Fly half: Harry McLaughlin-Phillips (Souths)
Halfback: Willem Johnstone (Souths)
No.8: Fergus Nasser (UQ)
Flanker: Fraser Leslie (Souths)
Flanker: Jack Condon (Brothers)
Lock: Alec Robinson (Wests)
Lock: Richie Fasisila (Norths)
Prop: Malakai Taulani (Brothers)
Hooker: Ben Murphy (Souths)
Prop: Patrick Leavemai (Wests)
Reserves: Benn Dellacourt (Brothers), Tom Lynagh (University), John Bryant (Souths), Fehi Mahina (Sunnybank), Sean Howlett (Bond), Leo Langbridge (Norths), Jack Small (Norths),
In women’s rugby, there were just two matches played due to bad weather, with UQ beating arch rivals Brothers 46-nil, and Sunnybank prevailing 7-nil over Wests after Wynona Baice scored for the Dragons.
University scored eight tries, with Eleni Rokomatu and Georgie Daniells bagging doubles, while Ema Masi, Taleah Kahotea and Caitlin Urwin also scored.
Uni coach Derby Malaulau said the most pleasing aspect was that Uni followed the game plan.
“Ball security was impressive and we will look to improve again next week,’’ Malaulau said.
“We will work on simply getting the basic right and improving our eyes up footy.’’
Brothers head coach Vanessa Bradley said lock Kirra Burke and prop Nina Poletti shone brightest, with both “relentless in turning up on the balll.’’
“I love the courage shown by the team,’’ Bradley said.
“We had no reserves, and played with 13 for most of the second half, even 12 at times and still made the opposition work hard.’’
She said the side was still working on its backline handling under pressure in the wet.’’
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