Roar Guru
Match Result: Brisbane City have started their National Rugby Championship defence in style, with a 29-16 win over the Perth Spirit at Ballymore.
Brisbane City 29
Perth Spirit 16
In the first match of the NRC’s second season, City ran in four tries to two to win the grand final replay.
They were pushed all the way by the Spirit, but the experience and class of the Queensland Reds players guided City to victory.
No team scored in the opening 20 minutes as both teams cleared out the cobwebs. This changed when Karmichael Hunt scored the first try of the match after a brilliant run by fullback Junior Laloifi.
A few minutes later Laloifi scored a try of his own to give City a 13-0 lead.
Perth reduced the margin with a rolling maul try to Kane Koteka to be 13-8 behind at halftime.
City responded with a try to centre Samu Kerevi before Perth made the margin five again with 24 minutes to go. That was as close as they got, as Jake McIntyre added a late try for City to end the match.
Brisbane attempted to gain a bonus point for a three-try winning margin, but could not score in the final few moments. Still, City will be happy with the win, and remain undefeated in three matches against the Spirit.
Brisbane face last season’s minor premiers the Melbourne Rising next week, while Perth take on the North Harbour Rays at home.
Match Preview
The National Rugby Championship is back, the new season getting underway with Brisbane City facing Perth Spirit in a grand final rematch at Ballymore. Join The Roar for all the action from 7:30pm (AEST).
Last year City won the inaugural title 37-26 over the Spirit at this venue.
This year sees a few changes to the competition with more rewards for players not attributed to a Super Rugby club. An Australian Barbarian team will be named from the NRC teams, to take on a fellow New Zealand team at the end of the season.
There will also be a new title called the Horan-Little shield. At every home match the title holder will be defending the shield, with the winner taking hold of it until the next match at home for them.
After winning the minor premiership last season, the Melbourne Rising will defend the shield this week against Queensland Country. For an away match, like this week, the title holder can opt to defend the shield or retain it for their next home fixture.
The Rising have taken the challenge on this week, and so Brisbane City could win the shield next week if Melbourne retain it.
Made up of Reds and local competition players, City will be looking to go back-to-back this season. They have eight players from last year’s grand final for this match, with 10 Queensland Super Rugby players in the 23-man squad, including Karmichael Hunt, captain Liam Gill, Chris Kuridrani, Andrew Ready, and Samu Kerevi.
Meanwhile, Perth have named plenty of Western Force players – in fact 14 of the first team’s 15 – all bar Kane Koteka – are contracted to the Force, while 12 were Spirit players last year.
Prediction
These two teams have met twice, with Brisbane winning both, including the grand final last year. With the talent in their team, City should make it three.
Brisbane by 8.