REPLAY: Watch the GCDRU Grand Finals
WATCH THE REPLAYS: Griffith University Colleges Knights take on the Nerang Bulls in First Grade and Gold Coast Eagles in Second Grade in triumphant wins.
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THE Griffith Uni Colleges Knights have beaten the Nerang Bulls and are the 2020 champions of First Grade.
The Knights beat the Bulls 33-15 to claim a well-deserved premiership.
Earlier, the Griffith University Colleges Knights also managed a win against the Gold Coast Eagles in Second Grade.
In that match, the Knights edged out the Eagles 13-8.
Nic Darveniza reports.
MATCH REPORT
Griffith University Colleges Knights have wiped clean the agony of last year’s grand final heartbreak with their own second half comeback to triumph over Nerang 33-15.
The ghosts of grand final defeats past flashed past Colleges skipper Jaye Paton’s eyes when fullback Connor Kennedy was ejected from Saturday’s GCDRU decider late in the first half.
A red card to playmaker Richie Kingi in last year’s grand final turned the tide of a 24-nil lead against Helensvale to unthinkable defeat.
Colleges led just 8-5 when Kennedy was involved in a scuffle with fullback opposite Will Bird.
An eagle-eyed assistant referee spotted a headbutt and Kennedy was marched from the field, bringing on an icy dose of déjà vu for his captain.
“Obviously it goes through your mind but you just had to let it go,” Paton said.
“We rallied back after that, especially in the second half, and I couldn’t be happier.
“We’d been exactly in that position before. That was the biggest repeat of last year where he had 14 men and lost.
“It was the best way we could have won; 14 men, the revenge, the fightback.”
Colleges looked a side already beaten as Nerang roamed from sideline to sideline with impunity before the break, crossing through industrious No.8 Jovi Isaac to lead 13-8 at half-time.
Colleges flyhalf Jarrod Nyssen snapped into action rom the first minute of the second half, putting his team on his back to carve apart the defence for a rapid try.
Bob Sinclair Medal nominee Harrison Cumming darted over for a second moments later to seize control of the match that Colleges never relinquished.
As battle-hardened substitutes poured onto the field Colleges grew an extra leg and spectators murmured it was the Bulls who appeared to be swimming upstream despite their man advantage.
The injection of former Wallaby tourist Richie Kingi sealed the match with a brilliant individual try to put the grand final away.
Nerang scored last through powerful prop Jean Bosco Paagalau but a drop goal from Nyssen, a consensus selection for man of the match, ended even that slim hope of a comeback.
EARLIER:
TOM and Will Bird are the smash and dash, fight and flight brothers different in every way but for their single-minded determination to lead the Nerang Bulls to victory over Colleges in Saturday’s Gold Coast rugby grand final.
Tom Bird is the elder by four years; a 190cm, 110 kilogram tradie turned rugby wrecking ball on weekends.
Younger brother Will Bird is only just 170 centimetres tall.
He’s the 68 kilogram clean freak who demanded his brother play on his knees to even up the fight in their backyard footy skirmishes growing up.
Now 22, Will is Nerang’s fearless first-year fullback who says nothing would mean more to him than snapping his club’s 14-year winless streak in Gold Coast rugby’s top grade.
The two brothers are as different as they come, which could be why their yin and yang combination in the Bulls backline has inspired Nerang into Saturday’s decider.
Their love for their club has spanned their entire lives.
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The Birds began their footballing careers on Pappas Way at five years old and after 21 years for Tom and 17 years for Will have never looked back.
“This club means everything to me and my family,” Will said.
“Three years ago me and Tom arrived at the first pre-season training of the year and there were only nine of us there.
“We said that’s it, we were going to transfer to Helensvale – but we couldn’t do it.”
The Bird brothers got on the phone and recruited to save their club instead.
There is no chance Nerang would be contesting their first A Grade final in over a decade if not for their efforts on that sweaty Tuesday night in 2018.
The Bulls rebounded from rock bottom to win the reserve grade premiership that season, demanding their place back in the top flight in 2019.
With the Bird brothers front and centre Nerang finished within a match of the 2019 decider as well.
The Bulls fairytale comeback will reach a crescendo at 4pm when they take the field in a grand final televised on goldcoastbulletin.com.au.
Tom will line up at his usual outside centre position while coach Johnny Maniapoto’s season-long gamble on backing a 170cm scrumhalf to anchor the team’s backline at fullback will reach its final test.
Converting Will Bird from the ruckbase to the outside backs has proven a masterstroke thus far.
The diminutive custodian has been an attacking terror throughout 2020, using a combination of speed and swerve and footwork to make oppositions double his size wish they were invisible instead.
“I love it,” Will said of his new position.
“This is my first year playing fullback, I’ve been a halfback all my life.
“I get more space, more time.
“I can see a lot more and move a lot more, use my speed and footwork.”
Not that there haven’t been hurdles along the way.
The first was no less humorous for its predictability.
“The 15 jersey is a size Large,” the fullback said.
“I’m only a Medium so I wear the 21 jersey because it fits.”
Bird could escape the ruckbase but not the jersey that flagged him as a member of rugby’s most colourful species.
The second was a near miss.
“Our regular halfback Bryson Rukuwai broke both his hands in the Navar Herbert Cup game against Helensvale about a month ago,” he said.
“There was a plan to move me to halfback but our coach wanted to keep me at fullback, so he moved Grubby (winger and skipper Josh Edmond) there instead.”
Nerang lost their first two matches after making the switch but stuck to their guns.
It all clicked in a 41-20 win over Gold Coast Eagles, which parlayed into a three-game winning streak and a grand final berth with undefeated Colleges in the decider.
“It’s been amazing,” Tom Bird said.
“I’ve always known what Will can do.
“People question his height and his size but you watch, he plays like’s six-foot tall and bulletproof.
“He’s a wonderful player and in my eyes he’s the best player on the Coast.”
Tune in from 4pm on the Bulletin website to catch Nerang take on Colleges in a grand final blockbuster live for digital subscribers. Subscribe for just $1.
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