Words by Tom Connor
Two cracking Buildcorp NRC Semi-Final matches took place on the weekend and there’s very few who would have predicted the results! The NSW Country Eagles and Brisbane City played out an absolute blockbuster on Friday night in Gosford, with the visitors producing a dominant second half display to claim the spoils.
The second Semi-Final was on Saturday, where the Melbourne Rising took on the Perth Spirit down at AAMI Park. In a fast paced encounter the Spirit took the lead early and never looked back, running in 45 points to ensure they’ll play again next week.
With just two teams now remaining, we take a look back at the Buildcorp NRC Semi-Finals and cast our eye ahead to the big dance on Saturday night.
Brisbane City, 32 defeated NSW Country, 26
This was always going to be a close game, both teams were evenly matched, which made for an arm-wrestle of a match. In their previous encounter earlier this year, City had claimed victory with an almost identical result of 34-26.
The Eagles looked strong as they have all season, particularly in the first half when they scored a couple of classy tries. City always looked ominous though, and with a huge amount of possession it was only a matter of time before they started to reap the rewards.
The work of Queensland Reds stars Jake Schatz and Liam Gill was enormous and proved influential factors in the result. Gill in particular was immense in tight and secured a number of turnovers for his side at critical times.
In the backs, Samu Kerevi continued to show whey he is considered a Wallaby-in-waiting, with the powerful Centre constantly crashing over the gain line. Despite this, Samu was pretty well restricted by the Eagles, with his opposite number Kuki Ma’afu, the younger brother of former Wallaby Salesi Ma’afu, putting on some bone crunching shots in defence.
The turning point came in the second half when two quick fire Brisbane City tries swung the momentum and the lead in favour of the visitors. A superior kicking game by Jake McIntyre pinned the Eagles down in their own 22, where they struggled to escape for most of the second half.
The desperation and commitment of City was summed up when Brandon Va’aulu chased down Kuki Ma’afu, who had nothing but space between him and the try line. Against all odds Va’aulu managed to punch the ball out of Ma’afu’s grasp whilst diving for the line.
As a result, Brisbane City head home to host the inaugural Buildcorp NRC Final at the historic rugby stomping ground of Ballymore, the very place where the tournament began.
Perth Spirit, 45 defeated Melbourne Rising, 29
Wow. The Perth Spirit were massive in their Semi-Final matchup against the Rising, who had set the pace all year. Despite being weakened by the departure of Luke Jones, Sean McMahon and Tom English who were all called up to join Rebels’ teammate, Scott Higginbotham in the Wallabies squad, the Rising still fielded a very strong team. It was hard not to feel a bit sorry for the Rising, whose first and only slip up came in the knockout stages, but Perth were up for this one and it certainly showed.
Calling on their vast Super Rugby experience, the Spirit named 11 Western Force players to match the Rebels laden Rising. Sam Wykes showed his leadership to produce a dominant performance, as did Zack Holmes who controlled the game beautifully from Fly half.
Jumping out to an early lead it was one they never relinquished, their win coming off the back of their ability to strike back whenever Melbourne crossed the line themselves.
Mitch Inman was a typical standout for the Rising, as was young Fullback, Jonah Placid. Both produced some outstanding individual efforts to cross the line for some meat, although the defence of the Spirit limited their attacking opportunities for much of the match.
Unfortunately for the Rising, their first underwhelming performance came at the wrong time of the year, and now the Spirit will continue their travels up to sunny Brisbane to take their place in the showpiece event.
The Final
This is a tough match to call. With City hosting the final up at Ballymore you’d have to say they would start as favourites. They have been fairly consistent all year and have demonstrated their ability to win the tight ones.
On the other hand though, if the Spirit perform the way they did on Saturday I can’t see City stopping them. The advantage of having Super Rugby experience has been prevalent right throughout this competition, and it might just give the boys from Perth the edge they need to get home on Saturday night.
Their only previous meeting was all the way back in Round Two, when the boys from Brisbane came away with a 26-21 victory over in the West. As we saw on the weekend though, whilst form is important, it really doesn’t count for much once that whistle goes.
