NRC semi-finals: Travelling Perth Spirit are in their happy place

With upsets and draws and presumed impossible mathematical equations becoming very possible in the last two rounds of the National Rugby Championship, you’d be a very game rugby fan to assume this weekend’s semi-finals bring no chance of a boilover.

And for the biggest boilover chance, you need look no further than Viking Park in Canberra on Saturday night, where the competition’s perennial travellers, the Perth Spirit, will be lobbing for the second appearance in 2017, in taking on the competition’s minor premiers, the Canberra Vikings.

But lobbing on the east coast is so familiar to the Perth side that it’s basically part of their travelling kit these days.

Numerous Spirit players have told me about this over the years, but Ian Prior and Heath Tessmann stand out as the guys who have best outlined it to me. Just last year, Prior told me that come the pointy part of the season, they’ve become so used to travelling that late-season home games start feeling a bit weird.

When they play away, he explained, the Perth players slip into an auto-pilot type of routine, where they play over the other side of the country, often on a Sunday, get on a plane that evening, but get to bed – in their own bed at home – at a decent hour, have the Monday off to reset and recover, train Tuesday and Wednesday, pack Thursday, travel Friday, play on the other side of the country on the weekend, rinse and repeat.

Similarly, Tessmann explained their approach to the 2016 season, telling me ahead of the Final, “We were going to be happy to walk quietly but carry a big stick, and do our work over here in Perth, and while everyone keeps hammering away and talking about the east coast sides, we’ll just keep working away”. And I know nothing’s changed in their approach, because the guys I’ve spoken to have said the same things this year, too.

Their NRC Finals record is three wins and one loss, with all four finals appearances away from home. How many teams readily come to mind with a 75 per cent-win record in finals on the road? It’s a remarkable achievement.

And the Vikings know all about this. They beat Perth in Canberra in Round 2, but only just. They looked in control in the first half, but then conceded three second half tries and the lead, before resetting and resettling in the last ten or so minutes to regain the lead and win 33-26. A week later, the Brumbies announced the signing of boom backrower, Isi Naisarani.

(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

I put all this to Vikings captain Tom Cusack in Canberra yesterday, and the grin on his face as I started talking about Perth’s record on the road confirmed that they know exactly what’s coming for them.

“You can sense the excitement, but there’s a few nerves there as well,” Cusack began. “Last night’s training was a bit ‘iffy’ in a sense, but you can see that everyone’s really keen to perform. Nerves are a positive sign that everyone really cares about this one.”

“Perth are the team in the NRC that always seems to perform. They’re last year’s champions, and they’ve got a lot to play for, in a sense, in that this could be the final time this playing group of theirs pulls on a Perth Spirit jersey.

“There’s a lot of pride and lot of passion in what they want to do, and they want to go out on a bang.

“It’s absolutely going to be a tough game for us, with them on the road.”

Perth will get several of their Barbarians reps back from last week, but not all of them, with lock Matt Philip – probably competing with Queensland Country skipper Duncan Paia’aua for the NRC’s best player title for 2017 – now deservedly called into the Wallabies squad for the Spring Tour.

Canberra will get Tom Banks back, but have now lost lock Blake Enever to the Wallabies squad. Sam Carter stayed with the Barbarians for this weekend’s All Blacks clash at Twickenham, and now Rory Arnold is done for the year. Wharenui Hawera was late withdrawal last weekend, but is expected to be named today.

If there’s one strength to the Vikings this weekend, it’s the Viking Park catering, where their famed steak sandwiches remain the undisputed king of Australian rugby food. The BBQ is situated about eleven metres from the visitors’ change room, and if the scent of tender, mouth-watering steak can lure a few of the Spirit’s big boys, then Canberra will be in front already.

(Image: AJF Photography)

And it’s finals time, so this sort of tactic is perfectly fine, as far as I’m concerned.

On Sunday, I’m not so sure there’s much chance of an upset, with the return of Paia’aua and Taniela Tupou set to strengthen Queensland Country ahead of their maiden NRC Finals appearance. The Fijian Drua are already without half a dozen of their best players to the Fiji national side, including destructive opensider Mosese Voka, and their starting front row.

They battled with the Sydney Rays last weekend – both on the scoreboard, and unfortunately on the field – and the task this weekend in Toowoomba is going to be that much harder again. They’ve been a wonderful addition to the NRC this season, but I think the curtain comes down on the Drua’s outstanding debut season on Sunday.

Semi-finals
Saturday
7pm AEDT – Canberra Vikings v Perth Spirit; Viking Park, Canberra – LIVE on Fox Sports 505

Sunday
3pm AEDT/2pm local – Queensland Country v Fijian Drua; Clive Berghofer Stadium, Toowoomba – LIVE on Fox Sports 505

Final NRC ladder
Canberra 29, Queensland Country 29, Fiji 22, Perth 20;
NSW Country 20, Brisbane City 20, Greater Sydney 13, Sydney 13, Melbourne 4.

Tips
One from four to finish the regular season last week, with two pretty decent upsets and a draw bringing me undone.

The semis feel like a real mixed bag.

I think Fiji are really up against it in Toowoomba, having to travel once again, though at least the weather will be a bit warmer for them this time around. Being without some pretty key personnel on international duty has hurt them at home the last two weeks, and I don’t see how that improves this weekend. And that’s before we even consider that Paia’aua and Tupou are back.

Queensland Country should win the second game comfortably, but the first semi-final will be far from comfortable.

If it was any other team, I’d have no hesitation picking Canberra to win at home, but Perth on the road is like no other team. Their record in finals on the road is incredible, and playing away is something they’re just not worried about.

I’m going to stick with Canberra, but it’s a really close-run thing, and I reckon there might only be a converted try in it. It could even be the game of the year, which is saying something, given what we’ve seen in recent weeks.