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The final round of the inaugural National Rugby Championship continues with Brisbane City hosting the Canberra Vikings.
The Vikings need to a big win to keep their finals hopes alive. If they are successful, they also need Perth to beat New South Wales Country.
The Vikings need to transform from genial Canberians into raging berserkers and drive marauding campaigns and conquer Brisbane City.
Can they live up to their name? Or is the Viking merely a logo?
The Vikings pride themselves on their set piece. They like to scrum. They love to ruck. And they are passionate about lineout drives to the tryline.
In this game, they will unleash a new weapon of destruction. It is a wild-haired and crazy-eyed Wallaby-qualified Henry Speight.
He is the absolute terroriser on the pitch. He strikes fear and dread to the best defenders from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Speight will aim to run through and run around Brisbane City’s centre pairing of 25 year old Jack Mullins and Toby White – both from Easts.
Mullins, like Speight, is no ordinary player on debut; the captain of Easts club normally plays scrumhalf. He is an attacking genius and is a very strong defender. But he has not defended in hyper-speed NRC, nor has he faced Speight.
He replaces Brisbane City’s ‘cruise missile’ Samu Kerevi, suffering from a groin complaint. He is Queensland’s equivalent of Speight. This is the first game without Kerevi, and it will be an interesting test for Brisbane.
Up front, Brisbane City’s pack performs like a M1A2 Abrams tank. They pack a powerful punch and move at high speed. They are skilled offloaders, a strong scrum, and are clinically punishing in the breakdown.
Moreover their front row is interchangeable. Today, they start 20 year old superstar Pettowa Paraka, Wallaby James Hanson and tighthead prop Sef Faagase.
Their bench front row is a ball breaking combination of 128kg Phil Kite, 125kg David Feao, and 21 year old hooker revelation, Andrew Ready.
Whilst the Brisbanites may have an advantage in contact, they do not have the tall timber of Vikings man-mountain Rory Arnold, who stands at an awesome six foot, 10 inches.
The Vikings may target the Brisbane City lineout, but we can be sure they will target the midfield, to get Speight through some space.
Brisbane City on the other hand, will look to maintain possession and take on the Vikings in contact, then bring on a brilliant attacker in Frisby along with seven other Reds including a certain Will Genia – who will cut through unprotected rucks in the second half.
The things of beauty to watch are Jarrad Butler behind a Vikings lineout drive, and Brisbane front row offload and 385kg interplay: between Feao, Ready and Kite.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.