Gold Coast Rugby Round 8: Surfers Paradise stuns Nerang, Pirates upset Palm Beach, Colleges draw Hogs

Nerang’s 22-game unbeaten run came to a dramatic end as Surfers Paradise stormed their turf to claim a famous victory, while the Knights staged a remarkable fightback and Bond Pirates shook up the top GCDRU four in a weekend of twists.

Bond University v Wests. Picture: Cavan Flynn / Bond University

Nerang has tasted defeat for the first time in 665 days after Surfers Paradise marched onto the premiers’ turf and snapped the ladder-leaders’ 22-match Gold Coast District Rugby Union winning streak 33-24.

The Bulls led by a point with eight minutes to play but were undone by a Connor Leather penalty goal and then a final-minute converted try to top prop Angus Burns to break the Gold Coast’s longest active winning run.

“They (Nerang) are a really good team, they have that belief like the All Blacks where they just always, to the last second, look like and feel like they’re going to win,” victorious coach Josh Kron said.

“So it was a very big effort from our lads to make sure they went to that very last second because it was that close up and down the whole game.”

Twice had the Bulls roared back from deficits to take spectators to the end of their seats.

Ultimately a strong counter-ruck from lock James Newell blasted Nerang off their own ball deep in their territory, setting the stage for Burns to peel off a rolling maul for the matchwinner.

“The boys were just ecstatic,” Kron said. “They were all over each other. It erupted as soon as that final whistle went. Everyone was very happy, on the back of some superb rugby. I don’t want to say ‘satisfying’ but it was a very enjoyable moment.”

Griffith Uni Colleges Knights scored in final play but missed a matchwinning conversion to tie with Helensvale 29-all - denying the Hogs their first win over Colleges since the epic 2019 grand final.

It was a remarkable escape act from the Knights after conceding 22 unanswered points in the first half to trail by 12 at the break.

“I felt relatively happy, to be fair, because we were down-and-out at halftime,” Colleges coach Shaun Cole said.

“I wasn’t happy at all at halftime because we let Hogs get on a roll too easily and they were unstoppable. Hogs were terrific and to fight back and snag a draw against them is a small win.”

Former Colleges captain Jaye Paton secured the key turnover that led eventually to lock Jack O’Shaughnessy’s equalising try in the corner.

Flyhalf Jordan Maher’s high-pressure conversion hooked to the left and bounced off the upright to end the game in stalemate.

Cole said changes would be made at the selection table after Colleges’ bench warriors engineered the late-game surge.

Bond Pirates heaped more pain on Palm Beach Currumbin in a 20-12 win that dumped the premiership’s dark horse out of the top four.

The Alleygators have now lost three of their last four matches to sit sixth on the ladder, having entered the month in first.

Palm Beach led 12-10 at the 60-minute mark but were overrun late as the Pirates raised the tempo of the clash.

The return of halfback Mitchell Hide from an ankle injury was a crucial in for Bond because his rapid service from the ruckbase lit the fuse for centre Harry Best’s match-sealing try.

Bond fielded 10 local juniors in the side that claimed their second of the season, with a number of former heroes in Keith Morris, Long Ngo and Reegan Chalmers making strong cameos in the desperate final moments.

In Coomera, the up-and-down Gold Coast Eagles defeated the Crushers 47-19 to conclude a high-scoring run against the competition’s minnows.

The Eagles have averaged 54 points per game in a sweep of the competition’s bottom three sides this month but lost to Palm Beach 39-10 in their only clash with a top four side.

That defeat was one week after the Eagles beat Bond Pirates 66-5 - illustrating just how unexpected Bond’s Round 8 victory over PBC was.

In the Hospital Cup, Bond University’s premiership ambitions were dealt a sobering reality check in a 62-12 defeat at home to Wests Bulldogs.

The visitors raced the clock for much of the match, scoring at nearly a point-per-minute for the first three-quarters of the contest.

Former Melbourne Rebels flyer Glen Vaihu was electric with two tries and a hand in several others in his fourth game back from a contract with the Brisbane Broncos.

Playmaker Luke Depiazzi and winger Samuel Dalton scored the Bullsharks tries.

ROUND EIGHT PREVIEW

The pain will never fade for former Griffith Uni Colleges Knights captain Jaye Paton.

Six years have passed since the most exciting Gold Coast District Rugby Union decider in memory, when the Knights coughed up a 24-0 lead to wind up on the wrong end of a grand final miracle against Helensvale.

That the Knights marched on to win four straight titles is little consolation for the players who burned their runner’s up banner on a bonfire in the hours after the 2019 season finale.

On Saturday Paton, Kerrod Martorella, Lesi Tawake, Blake Griffin, Tereina McLean and Jake Allen will face Helensvale again, as the last survivors of the night that birthed a Colleges dynasty.

For Paton, Saturday’s meeting against the high-flying Hogs in a second-vs.-third showdown is a chance to soothe the scars that will never heal.

“There’s definitely always been a rivalry with us and Helensvale since I’ve been down the Coast,” Paton said.

“It will be an exciting one to play in. It’s definitely a love-hate relationship with a few of those guys.

“Any game against these guys is always big and it means a lot to us. That memory is always there in the back of our mind every time we play them. They’re a respected club and every time we play them is always hard and rough, no matter how they’re going, they tend to play really good against us. We won’t be taking them lightly at all.”

Paton, Gold Coast’s inaugural Bob Sinclair Medallist as 2019’s MVP, returned from a lengthy injury lay-off against Coomera in Round 7 via the bench.

He was named on the bench again and said he planned to continue playing limited minutes until his fitness returns.

GCDRU Round 8, 3pm Saturday: Eagles @ Crushers; Dolphins @ Bulls, Alleygators @ Pirates; Knights @ Hogs