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Opinion

Two favourites, the defending champs, and the best Queenslanders: The road to the NRC semi-finals

17th October, 2019
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17th October, 2019
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It doesn’t take much for the National Rugby Championship to quietly slip out of view, but there’s no doubt a simultaneous Rugby World Cup in our timezone has made things especially tough for the NRC this season.

Regardless, and as has been the case every season of its six-season existence, anyone who has found the live streams or attended games in person has once again been treated to some wonderful rugby.

Last weekend’s final round delivered the obligatory curveballs, with a couple of top four teams suffering losses, and finding themselves out of the semi-final running.

For NSW Country, this would’ve been hard to take after they ran in the top two and the top three at worst through seven rounds. A final round loss to the Canberra Vikings meant they slipped out of the top four by a point.

Ian Prior

Ian Prior of the Force (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

Queensland Country were the other team to miss out, losing to the Drua in Fiji, and then watching on as Brisbane City beat Melbourne to overtake them and take fourth spot. There hasn’t been much between the two Queensland sides, in truth, but there was always a feeling that there was only room for one of them.

Which leaves us with Saturday and Sunday’s semi-finals – and this how the sides got there.

Western Force (first) v Brisbane City (fourth) – UWA Sport Park, Perth; Saturday 12:00pm AWST/3:00pm AEDT
I expected the Force to be very strong in the NRC, coming into the competition as the only side with any form line, coming off a full Global Rapid Rugby campaign. And it didn’t take long for that favouritism to materialise.

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A one-point win at home in a 99-point thriller against Queensland Country in Round 1 got the ball rolling, but it was the subsequent wins over Fiji in Fiji, Melbourne, and Canberra that cemented them as the team to beat in 2019.

Their one and only loss came in Round 5 against NSW Country, and they then locked down their first ever home final and minor premiership with wins over Brisbane City and Sydney. I think they remain odds on to host the NRC Final in Perth next weekend.

Brisbane City always looked like a dangerous side, but inconsistency has been their undoing at times.

A hard-fought opening round draw against the Drua was followed by an impressive win over Sydney and a one-point loss to the Vikings in Canberra, leaving them mid-table.

Their run home was better, just; a win over NSW Country at home that was much more comprehensive than the final score suggested, an Andy Purcell Cup loss to Queensland Country and a narrow loss to the Force in Perth, before accounting for Melbourne.

After both NSW Country and Queensland Country lost, a win was all City needed to leapfrog them both, and that’s how it played out.

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They’ll be up against it facing the Force in front of the parochial supporters on the MacGillivray Oval hill, but they’ve given themselves a chance.

Canberra Vikings v Fijian Drua – Viking Park, Canberra, Sunday 3:00pm AEDT
Canberra were always the other team to start favourites for me, even with their Wallabies contingent out and some senior players moving on, and Tommy Cusack switching over to Sevens for the summer, it was still a strong squad they put together.

But like most NRC seasons, the Vikings started their campaign a bit up-and-down, not stringing two wins together for the first four rounds. A strong win over Melbourne was followed by a disappointing loss to Queensland Country, followed by a narrow win over Brisbane City and then a lacklustre loss to the Force in Perth.

But the last three games all at home was always going to set them up, and that’s what transpired. A solid win over Fiji, a comfortable win over Sydney, and then last week’s hard-fought win over NSW Country to secure the home semi and with it, the perfect tune-up for the finals. They’re the Force’s biggest threat for the title, for mine.

Mosese Voka of the Fijian Drua

Mosese Voka of the Fijian Drua. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

The defending champions, the Fijian Drua, brought a weaker team into the 2019 NRC for mine, and I still think that to be true, with upwards of a dozen of last year’s squad currently in Japan. But that just makes their late run to qualify third even more impressive.

After three rounds, I thought their title defence was in trouble; a draw with Brisbane City, a loss at home to the Force, and another draw with NSW Country leaving them with just four points after three games and needing to win everything on their run home.

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They nearly did that. They thumped Sydney 76-29 in Round 4, lost to Canberra in Canberra, and then hoisted the wet sail – pun intended – coming home with wins over Melbourne and Queensland Country.

The door was left open for them to sneak into the top four, and there’s no doubt they’ll be a better chance against Canberra with a 3pm kick-off – memories remain fresh of their last trip to the Nation’s Capital, when a 7:30 kick-off in early September left them shivering for eighty minutes.

Both NRC semi-finals are live on Fox Sports, Kayo, and RUGBY.com.au across the weekend.

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