A splash of James O’Connor polish and superb try-line defence earned Brothers a tight 23-18 victory in today’s knockout semi-final in the StoreLocal Hospital Cup.
The Brethren were forced to defend desperately over the final 15 minutes to hold out a surging GPS at Sylvan Road to stay alive in Queensland rugby’s peak club competition.
With six minutes to play, winger Lawson Creighton made a stunning covering tackle and ripped the ball free as replacement GPS prop Fred Burke was set to score. The Brethren held up GPS over the tryline in the final 10 minutes as well.
Both acts robbed GPS of valuable time. When flyhalf Teti Tela did score after involvements from Josh Collins and Floyd Aubrey, the clock was against them.
“The guys just hung in and put their bodies on the line against GPS’ big boys which is what this club is all about,” a delighted Creighton said at full-time.
“Saving tries is as good as scoring them in a tight semi-final.”
The step up in quality with 11 past or present Super Rugby players on the field was obvious. The tight match was delicately poised at 13-all at half-time before discarded Wallaby flyhalf O’Connor stepped up with two match-turning plays.
On 48 minutes, he found a little space and put Wallaby backrower Harry Wilson into a hole. O’Connor had to do everything possible to shed the interference of GPS defenders to position himself for a return pass on the outside for the key go-ahead try.
Minutes later, O’Connor was in space again. He banged a kick 50m downfield, chased like a colt and helped forced Aubrey to ground the ball behind his own line.
Goalkicker O’Connor stepped up soon after to nail his fifth kick from as many attempts to give Brothers a vital 10-point lead at 23-13.
O’Connor happily signed autographs and posed for photos for kids in midfield after the match. He played with a smile. The return to club rugby clearly has meaning and is no chore after he was cut from the Wallabies squad by coach Dave Rennie.
“I was pretty down when I was dropped but I’m loving this time at Brothers. To be put in this group and play at a family club where rugby first started for me is something I missed out on,” O’Connor said.
“I played juniors for Brothers in the Under-16s, through the old pipeline from Nudgee College, before my rugby took me in a different direction.
“That was a good win with lots of character.”
The Brethren have won entry to a classic preliminary final against their most traditional foes, University of Queensland, next Sunday at Bond University on the Gold Coast.
Premiers UQ must rouse themselves for another big effort after a crazy, draining major semi-final on Saturday that stretched beyond two hours before they were denied by Wests.
The 37-all scoreline tells only a little of the full story of what unfolded at Ashgrove on Saturday afternoon in Brisbane.
The official elapsed time for the major semi was two hours, 13 minutes when the 12-minute half-time break, a 10-minute extra time period and all the time-off pauses are included. Remarkable.
Wests’ emotional advance to a first grand final since 2006 had enough drama, disputed moments and flips of momentum to be totally worth a 16-year wait.
Eventually, the minor premiers got through on level scores because of their higher finish in the regular season. The Bulldogs will need a day or two to come down from the nerve-fraying spectacle.
On the same turf where Wests blew a 21-point semi-final lead last year, the Bulldogs dug deeper than they ever have.
“Exhausted but incredibly proud of the grit we showed. The image of that (bungled 2021 semi-final) has been stuck in my head for 12 months,” Wests centre Isaac Henry said.
Assistant coach Cassidy Holland was a proud member of Wests’ 2006 premiership side. He had borderline RSI on Saturday delivering drink bottles to fatigued players.
“This result wasn’t about systems in the end. It was about incredible ticker, putting effort on effort and how much the boys wanted it. They also know the job isn’t done until they win the grand final,” Holland said.
The first team through to the StoreLocal Hospital Cup grand final at Suncorp Stadium on September 18 will still be pinching themselves en masse.
The Bulldogs were down 37-27 with less than 40 seconds to play in regular time when fullback Cooper Whiteside scored out wide at Ashgrove.
By the time UQ strolled back to kick off time was up and referee James Palmer would have called full-time at the next stoppage.
The drama had only just begun. Wests gathered possession from the kick-off, won a penalty and Henry hoofed a huge 45m kick to touch to set up an attacking platform.
Wests earned another penalty and a scrum feed against a UQ side down to 14 men without their yellow-carded Melbourne Rebels flanker Sam Wallis.
Palmer whistled five penalties in a row against faltering UQ scrums and that doesn’t include the re-sets. This eye-popping period stretched to nearly 15 minutes of extra minutes before Wests did take the ball off the back, under advantage, and Whiteside scored in the corner again to tie the scores.
Some Bulldogs fans were apoplectic that a penalty try and a winning seven-point score hadn’t already been awarded. Uni followers also thought they'd done enough to earn a penalty and a win in the same scrum-a-thon.
Palmer remained unmoved but did offer an explanation.
“The penalties were not an escalation on one particular side of the scrum. When there was a repeat infringement a yellow card was awarded (against UQ prop Sef Fa’agase),” Palmer said.
“The definition of a ‘penalty try’ is preventing a probable try from being scored and that wasn’t the situation. There were collapses on setting the scrum. On only one occasion did Wests advance and I couldn’t award a penalty try there because their front-row came up.”
The drama was worthy of a drum roll. Palmer would have been the man for that too. He’s a drummer in a band and the late finish made him late for a gig.
Whiteside stepped up to take the conversion. Players and fans ran to mob him when it soared over the left upright but it was judged just wide.
One extra time period of 10 minutes was called. Inexplicably, UQ goalkicker Brad Twidale missed a “golden point” chance to grab the game when a 30m penalty goal attempt from nearly in front flew wide.
The Bulldogs held their nerve, defended with every spent body that was lifted off the turf and they are into the grand final.
There were too many rolling maul tries off 5m lineouts to call the game a free-flowing classic. UQ hooker Cam Flavell scored three of his four tries for the day that way.
There was still a super long ball from centre Nick Jooste in the lead-up to the late Joe Pincus try down the touchline to get excited about. Or one of the best pieces of front-row skill this year.
Rebels prop Cabous Eloff, who has linked with Wests, charged down a Jock Campbell kick on half-time. He picked up the loose ball from the turf on the run and dished a quick pass to lock Angelo Smith for his second try for Wests.
Backrow standout Connor Anderson is excited about the September 18 date at Suncorp Stadium.
“I’m most proud we played out the full game, dealt with adversity and never gave up. There are lots of things we can improve but they are qualities you want in a team,” Anderson said.
Minor semi-final: Brothers 23 (J Christian, J O'Connor tries; J O'Connor 2 con, 3 pen goals) by GPS 18 (B Nickel, T Tela tries; J Hofmeyr con, 2 pen goals)
Major semi-final: Wests 37 (A Smith 2, C Whiteside 2, K Tauakipulu tries; C Whiteside 3 con, 2 pen goals) drew with University of Qld 37 (C Flavell 4, J Pincus, K Oates tries; B Twidale con, pen goal, N Jooste con)
