A worrying ankle injury to flanker Brad Wilkin compounded Easts’ dismay today when their season was snuffed out by a fine Brothers’ effort.
Brothers overcame a 24-18 deficit at half-time to surge home for a quality 46-29 win in the knockout semi-final of Queensland Premier Rugby.
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Not even the biggest crowd of the season at Easts’ Bottomley Park home could urge home the Tigers.
Brothers’ reward is a place in next Saturday’s preliminary final against Bond University at Ashgrove where the winner will earn the right to play Wests in the grand final.
The red-haired Wilkin was as busy as always in the opening half before his day ended at the 47-minute mark.
The Melbourne Rebels captain limped off with a right ankle injury and some frustrated shakes of the head.
He will now have to pass a fitness test because he is an almost certain selection in the Australia A squad to face Portugal in France on August 26.
Ripping 25 players out of the club finals in Brisbane and Sydney for A team duty isn’t putting a smile on the face of any club coach.
Brothers will likely be without backs James O’Connor and Josh Flook for the clash with Bond, who may be without Melbourne Rebels duo Matt Gibbon and Josh Canham, Australia A reps in Tonga in July.
Reds No.8 Harry Wilson should also be in the A team picture. If he’s not, Brothers will reap the benefit because his red headgear was everywhere at Bottomley Park.
He made his typical quota of strong carries, there was some passing interplay with brother Will and he charged towards the line for the deciding try.
Easts winger Tyrees Wilson prevented a proper grounding with a high tackle but the referee awarded a penalty try and dispensed a yellow card instead.
The score gave Brothers the 39-29 break they needed with 15 minutes to play.
Flyhalf Lawson Creighton had put Wilson in the clear with a neat pass, again reflective of a No.10 at the top of his game.
A Creighton long ball in the opening minutes had presented winger Robert Mapa with the first try of an 11-try game which needed some starchier defence at times.
Creighton had to find a way to bounce back in the second half and he did. It was his kick that was charged down on half-time when Easts lock Aidan Leeming gobbled up the crumbs for a try.
Easts prop Rhys Van Nek has a cult following at Tigerland. It will only grow after the way he scored Easts’ first try.
He found himself in the clear. Rather than look to dish off a pass he dashed more than 15m to score himself with roars from the grandstand in his prominent ears.
He would look comfortable in an Australia A line-up himself with the nation’s tighthead stocks so stretched.
Creighton was delighted with the win.
“It’s a good feeling because it’s always a challenge to win at Tigerland where the crowd always lets you know their thoughts,” Creighton said.
“We made a few adjustments at half-time and a big focus was back-to-back points to keep applying pressure.”
Added Brothers coach Brendan Gabbett: “There’s a want in the side this year. It means more.
“That was a terrific effort from our young prop Jaiden Christian. We won a key tighthead at a scrum in the final 10 minutes when Easts were putting on some pressure.”
For the Tigers, it is the end of an era with coach and former Wallaby Ben Mowen now headed to Canberra to be an assistant coach with the ACT Brumbies in 2024.
“We made some mistakes which cost us in the end but I was proud of the way we played for 50 minutes because that’s the style we have built to,” Mowen said.
“I saw character there in a side down by 10 points, not getting rattled and fighting to a lead. That was a good reflection of the side but you have to extend that to 80 minutes.
“You look at a young guy like (prop) JP Tominiko. He dislocated his elbow a week earlier and he put in a strong effort to the end.”
BROTHERS 46 (R Mapa, T Ryan, I Tarabay, H Lloyd, P James tries; pen try; L Creighton 4 con, 2 pen goals) bt EASTS 29 (R Van Nek, A Leeming, T Wilson, S Kennedy, P Nakubuwai tries; E Pilz 2 con)
