New NRC crowd record at Ballymore as Quade Cooper returns

In a positive sign for the NRC, Brisbane City have defeated Queensland Country 29-13 in front of a very strong crowd at Ballymore.

The count hadn’t been finalised when I filed this story but it was already over five thousand and I won’t be surprised if the final figure is between six and seven thousand.

The Queensland Rugby Union did a good job promoting both of their teams in the inaugural season of the competition and turned on a good show both on and off-field for a crowd appreciative of Sunday afternoon rugby at the spiritual home of the game in the state.

The local derby and the added bonus that Quade Cooper was making his return from injury in the match didn’t hurt the anticipation.

As opposed to the flat mood from a very small crowd on the Gold Coast two weeks ago, when Queensland Country played a curtain raiser before the Wallabies and Pumas Test match, there was a great atmosphere.

It really showed what this competition could become given time to mature.

I tipped Brisbane City in this match by 10 to 15 points due to the extra experience in their team, but following a scrappy start, it was Queensland Country that skipped away to a 13-nil lead before City started to claw their way back.

JJ Taulagi starred for the Country team, scoring the first try and playing a big part in the second scored by his University club mate, Tom Pincus. Taulagi told me after the match that he’s finding this competition very helpful for his development and he’s finding a home in the Country team.

“It’s been a long season and didn’t go as I’d hoped but coming into this competition I knew this would be a good way for me to build my confidence by getting out there and playing some more rugby,” Taulagi said.

With Greg Holmes missing due to a serious shoulder injury Country’s scrum was under pressure throughout the match. The City pack eventually got on top and used their dominance at scrum time to build a platform to dominate possession. Hayden Hirsimaki received a yellow card in the first half for repeatedly collapsing the scrum, and once again we saw the importance of the scrum to the outcome of matches.

Despite being in trouble at the scrum, Country had the better of the lineout battle for much of the match.

Country went into the halftime break leading 13,-5 after Pettowa Paraka scored for City, but after only five minutes of the second half City had levelled at 13-13 with a try to Andrew Ready off the back of a solid lineout maul.

Samu Kerevi was again a strong performer. He started at number 12 in this match but looks so much better when playing slightly wider in the 13 channel.

Chris Kuridrani scored after 60 minutes and City’s scrum dominance produced another yellow card for Country when Will Slipper, younger brother of James, was also yellow carded for repeated scrum infringements with 10 minutes to go.

Replacement lock Marco Kotze made sure of the result when he ran a great line to burst through Country’s defence and touch down with just seven minutes left to earn City the inaugural Andy Purcell Cup.

Cooper returned to the field from his injury layoff for a 20-minute stint. He looked healthy and confident, with a few trademark passes that had the crowd gasping. He told me after the match that the shoulder felt good.

“I had a few bumps on it and it felt good,” Cooper said. “I’ve been doing a fair bit of contact work in training but it was good to do it in a match.”

Subject to the Reds medical team being happy with how he pulls up, Cooper is scheduled to play at least a full half for City next week.

City captain Dave McDuling was pleased with how his team came back in the match after Country got away to a good start.

“It was a typical derby match today and Queensland Country really made us work hard for it,” McDuling said. “We knew they would and they probably caught us a bit on the hop coming off the bye. Full credit to them, they put us under a lot of pressure.

“The message when we went behind was to just hold on to the ball. We weren’t doing anything we spoke about and we had two one-on-one defensive lapses to allow in two early tries. We were trying to stay positive and looked quite good when we could hold on to the ball.”

City coach Nick Stiles was happy overall but wasn’t as happy with his lineout. “There were some mistakes made with hearing the calls apparently so that’s something we’ll have to rectify”.

It was a very successful day with a great crowd and attractive rugby from both teams.