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Brisbane City have been crowned the inaugural winners of the National Rugby Championship, after a dominant 37-26 win over Perth Spirit at Ballymore Oval in Brisbane.
In front of a wonderful crowd of 7889 people – the biggest standalone NRC crowd of the competition by some margin – City got home on the back of a strong second half from their pack, where they didn’t concede a point until after the final siren.
Brisbane City Head Coach Nick Stiles was an immensely satisfied man, with the crowd flocking onto the field in numbers post-match.
“Oh, just stoked for the boys, Brett,” he told me. “It’s funny, we’ve won the comp, but at no stage did we talk about winning being the outcome. We spoke about working hard for each other, our attitude being right, and having fun. And we did that through the whole comp, and the reward for doing those things is outcomes, and the outcome is we’ve won the comp.
“The score line was tight, but it was a brutal performance from our forwards in particular,” Stiles said.
Victorious skipper Dave McDuling echoed the thoughts of his coach:
“I’m over the moon. Incredibly proud of the effort. The forwards laid the platform; the backs tackled their hearts out all day against some pretty well-established Super Rugby players.
“I’m really proud of everyone. For ten weeks, all we spoke about was working hard for each other and building that culture, and that’s what got us across the line, I think.
Brisbane City and Queensland Reds openside Liam Gill was the Man of the Match, though it could easily have been two-try hero, loosehead prop Pettowa Paraka. For Perth, Dane Haylett-Petty was a clear standout.
After a cacophony of noise on kickoff, the opening stages looked very similar to the Melbourne-Perth semi last week, and Perth again profited early when winger Matt Feaunati spilled a high ball, with Junior Rasolea crossing in the third minute. Zack Holmes slotted the conversion for the early 8-0 lead.
Brisbane were able to get straight back on attack in reply though, and a full arm penalty saw Nick Frisby kicking for the corner. If there’s been one great technical improvement over the course of the NRC, the attacking lineout into driving maul has been it, and sure enough, Gill crashed over in the eighth minute after the City pack easily made up the few metres of ground in front of them.
Jake McIntyre converted the try to draw the scores level.
Brisbane City then bombed a certain try and had one other disallowed over the next ten minutes, with Perth fullback Haylett-Petty pulling off a sensational try-saving tackle that knocked the ball free of Feaunati’s grip after he’d crossed the line.
Only a few minutes later City number 8 Jake Schatz barged over the line, but not over Perth scrumhalf Ian Prior, who had managed to wrap himself under the ball.
Brisbane’s scrum dominance began to emerge, and after the Perth pack were forced to pop when a pushover try looked likely, referee Rohan Hoffmann had no hesitation in awarding the penalty try. McIntyre’s conversion put Brisbane ahead 16-8.
Haylett-Petty then scored one of the tries of the tournament in the 24th minute, when on penalty advantage, Holmes kicked cross-field for his fullback to sail above Brando Va’aulu to score. Holmes’ cross kick was superb, but his conversion was far from, with the stabbed effort falling short to the right of the posts.
Perth crossed again ten minutes later, with the Spirit’s leading try-scorer for the NRC, hooker Robbie Abel busting through some pretty soft City defence to wrest back the lead for the visitors. Holmes converted, to bring the score line back to 21-16.
Brisbane were able to hit back just before halftime, with loosehead Pettowa Paraka peeling off another effective maul in the right-hand corner. McIntyre kept up his perfect record, and Brisbane would go into the sheds with a 24-21 halftime lead.
The first twenty minutes after the break didn’t reach any massive heights, but a couple of little things started going Brisbane’s way, which had us wondering in the press box if we had just seen a bit of a momentum shift. First, Haylett-Petty saw a grubbering kick veer into touch off his shin, and only a minute or two later, Gill was able to charge down a clearing kick. It felt like City were setting up camp inside the Perth 40 metres.
Paraka scored his second on 58 minutes, this time emerging from the middle of a maul to crash over, putting Brisbane ahead by eight. McIntyre missed the conversion from the sideline, missing the chance to push the lead beyond a converted try.
When Junior Laloifi scored an outstanding try in the left hand corner having beaten three Perth defenders, McIntyre’s conversion from the sideline pushed the lead out to 16 with less than five minutes remaining.
Brisbane won a scrum penalty in the 79th minute from as good a scrum as any of the match, and from there it was just a matter of playing down the clock.
Perth replacement Davis Tavita scored a consolation try after the siren, and Holmes missed the conversion, confirming the 37-26 final score line.
Brisbane City 37 (Paraka 2, Gill, Laloifi tries + penalty try; McIntyre 4/5 conversions) defeated Perth Spirit 26 (Rasolea, Haylett-Petty, Abel, Tavita tries; Holmes 2/4 conversions) at Ballymore Oval, Brisbane.
Halftime: Brisbane City 24-21
Crowd: 7889
Brett travelled to the NRC grand final as a guest of Buildcorp