Gold Coast and District Rugby Union Round 4 breakdown: Nerang Bulls vs Griffith Knights
The Gold Coast Rugby Union’s leading first-grade attack meets the best defence in the competition. Who are the men who can make the difference?
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To be able to perform the pretty stuff, a team has to earn that right.
That is the mentality Nerang Bulls coach John-Henry Maniapoto has taken with his side as they head into their clash with Gold Coast rugby union heavyweights, Griffith Uni Colleges.
With their bye round falling right before the Easter break, Nerang have had two weeks on the sidelines to continue finetuning an attack quickly hitting its stride.
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Maniapoto’s offence leads the competition with 11 tries after just two matches, but they now face a Knights defence who have leaked just four in three appearances
Griffith are still yet to beaten since the 2019 grand final, and Maniapoto said his side would need to win the small battles through the middle before they sought to expand their offence.
With two of Griffith’s wins coming at the death they have shown they can be beaten, but the Nerang coach said any mistakes they made would be exploited by the defending champions.
“It (our attack) is actually working all right, we’re sort of like a new team so it will take us a while to get used to each other,” Maniapoto said.
“I think we’re just keeping everything pretty simply, just doing the basics. We just want all our boys to enjoy playing, and if we’re scoring those types of tries I suppose it’s because we are enjoying the way we’re approaching our game.
“We just have to make sure we earn the right, you’ve got to earn the right to be able to go wide. Every club has their own defensive styles and that, but we’ve got to work hard before we do anything like that.”
The Bulls attack received a telling injection over the off-season when former Helensvale Hogs winger Logan Watene joined the Nerang ranks.
The flyer opened his account with a hat-trick in his club debut, however should he retain the goal kicking duties he will be out to make a statement after the Dolphins loss.
But Maniapoto said Watene’s input had been more than the points he had been able to score. Rather it was the energy he brought to the field that helped bring out the best in his teammates.
“You always want to play well when you go to another club,” he said.
“I think it’s just his enthusiasm, when you’re changing clubs you have that enthusiasm and he’s just been keen.”
The Bulls and Knights will kick off from 3.40pm on Saturday at Nerang.
GCDRU ROUND 4 PLAYER BATTLE: NERANG VS GRIFFITH UNI COLLEGES
William Bird (Bulls) vs Connor Kennedy (Knights)
A Nerang team of the decade member will go head-to-head with the Knights’ never-say-die custodian.
William Bird has kickstarted his 2022 campaign for the Bulls with tries in both contests, flourishing within the side’s expanded attacking blueprint.
With his brother Thomas on his inside shoulder in widespread passages and recruit Watene on his outside, Bird has a pair of electric options to drew attention and enable his own running game to shine.
However the fullback’s positional battle with Connor Kennedy could be the ultimate duel of attack vs defence.
It was Kennedy’s desperate chase on a breakaway Surfers Paradise player prior to the Easter holidays that proved the difference as the Knights won by a penalty goal in the shadows of full-time.
That desperation against the competition’s leading attack could once again be what keeps the club’s winning streak alive.
GCDRU ROUND 4 PLAYER BATTLE: BOND VS SURFERS PARADISE
Lepau Feau (Pirates) vs Donny Ngwun (Dolphins)
Two sides reeling from such narrow defeats will be out to make a statement. And it will have to come from their chief playmakers.
Bond’s leading attacking weapon, Kiwi product Lepau Feau, went within a whisker of materminding the end of Griffith’s reign in the Pirates 8-7 round one loss.
His move from fly-half to inside centre in their next match against the Eagles opened up the man he swapped with, Ethan Lolesio. However once again they were bettered by a point.
Such close losses are bound to light the fire in the Pirates’ leading man.
But the same can be said for Dolphins number 10 Donny Ngwun.
Ngwun’s boot kept the pressure firmly on the Knights prior to Easter, with the first half wind behind proving a particularly threatening asset for the former Hog.
For one of these outfits to get back in the winner’s circle, Feau’s fleet feet at the line taking on Ngwun’s boot could make or break the challenge.
Dolphin, PBC star’s moment of brilliance in world stage debut
This time last year he was showcasing the type of blinding speed and impact play that would leave his Gold Coast rivals in his wake. Now, former Dolphin Indiha Saotui-Huta has taken his talents to the world stage.
The Palm Beach Currumbin High School product, who won a national schoolboys rugby league title in 2018, was denied the chance to represent the Samoan under-20s rugby union side in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic brought sport to its knees worldwide.
But having received a call up to the island nation’s International Rugby Sevens squad last year, the 22-year-old left the Gold Coast to link up with the side. At last, he pulled on the blue jersey at the weekend’s World Rugby Sevens Series event in Singapore.
Playing off the bench in each outing, it was in Samoa’s come from behind victory against Spain where Saotui-Huta demonstrated the attacking prowess that made him such a feared attacking weapon of the Gold Coast and District Rugby Union.
Receiving the ball on halfway, the Surfers Paradise wunderkind skipped to the outside of two defenders, evading them just enough to burst into the clear and score under the posts. It was reminiscent of the form he brought to Dolphins last year, a campaign in which he left a palpable mark on competition with 11 tries in 12 appearances.
Surfers Paradise captain Alex Behn said while he never got the chance to take the field with the dynamic youngster, what he saw from afar never ceased to amaze him.
He said from the moment Saotui-Huta’s name was announced on the Samoan squad list, the entire Dolphins fraternity had galvanised around their former teammate.
“I never played with him because I didn’t play last year, but from what I saw he was just an electric 15 who could score a try from anywhere on the field,” Behn said. “Everyone is getting behind him. He’s still very much a part of the group chat we’ve got and provides us with some motivation and words from time to time.”
After Samoa fell in the quarterfinals on Sunday – a 22 to 14 defeat against heavyweights New Zealand – Saotui-Huta will seek to add to his international caps this week.
Following their first appearance on the global circuit in more than two years due to coronavirus concerns, Saotui-Huta will travel to Vancouver for the Canada Sevens, which begins on April 16.
Magic boot at the death, thriller ends winless run: GCDRU Round 3 breakdown
For the second time this season, the boot of Callum Brown at the death was needed to keep the Griffith Knights dynasty alive.
Locked at 14-all against a Surfers Paradise unit led by former two-time championship winning coach Johnny Ngauamo, a penalty goal from 40m out on the stroke of the full-time siren continued the club’s winning streak.
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Brown has only just become a regular first-grade fixture for the defending premiers, however in the early throes of 2022 he has showcased composure under pressure to keep the side’s winning streak in tact.
The fly-half said in the initial stages of his senior rugby career he may have crumbled under the scrutiny of such a clutch kick.
Now, even with a parochial crowd against him and the odd ‘well-timed’ blaring of a car horn, he had learned to control those nerves.
“I just wanted to win it for the boys I guess, it makes it a bit easier thinking about that,” Brown said after Griffith’s 17-14 triumph.
“I think now that I’ve been playing seniors for six or seven years, maybe when I first started I would’ve been a bit tense but I practice a lot so that helps.
“I just love playing at this football club. I’ve prioably played maybe 30 or 40 games of first grade in my six years I’ve been here.
“I’ve been a second grader a lot, but coming here it’s all the players around me. I just have to tell people where to go, kick the ball well and do my job.”
The Dolphins were valiant in defeat, losing two men to injury — one who had to been carried off in a stretcher with what appeared to be a neck concern — while defending against a lopsided penalty count late in the contest.
Yet with the support of a strong wind behind them in the first-half they were able to shock the Knights out of the gates and ran out to a 14-0 lead.
While Griffith managed to claw their way back to level terms, a break through the middle by Surfers Paradise threatened to end a longstanding victory run that dates back to the 2019 Gold Coast and District Rugby Union grand final.
But in arguably the play of the game, Knights fullback Connor Kennedy proved the desperate defender needed to maintain their unbeaten charge.
“He’s a star, the things he does that go unnoticed he’s sensational,” Brown said of his teammate.
“I love having him in our team, this would be his fourth season at least with us and he’s always (doing those things).
“He’s deceptively quick, it doesn’t look like he’s moving fast but he gets across the field really quick.
“We were confident in our fitness, we’re probably the fittest team in the comp so we know we can come over teams at the end if we’re 14, 20, 30 behind even.
“We’re just working for each other really, fitness is more a mental thing than actually a physical thing.”
EAGLES VS PIRATES: GOLD COAST BREAK PAINFUL DUCK
They endured a winless campaign in 2021, and were yet to experience victory this year.
But at last, the Gold Coast Eagles have returned to the winner’s circle, and in thrilling fashion to boot.
Led by fly-half Tyler Wright, the Eagles closed out a 19-18 victory over Bond, in a game that ebbed and flowed with each passage of play.
Ultimately the kicking tee proved the Gold Coast’s extra punch to get over the line, as tries to Pirates trio Sagele Harrison, Ethan Lolesio and Saliasa Bakata threatened to steal the contest.
However all three attempts were sprayed wide, while Wright and Eagles fullback Tupua Jr Su’a did enough with the boot to at last get points on the premiership table.
Originally published as Gold Coast and District Rugby Union Round 4 breakdown: Nerang Bulls vs Griffith Knights
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