Pirates steal booty with the final play
Traffic woe puts Bond Uni in spin before loss
@obrien_GCB WHATEVER could go wrong, did go wrong for Bond University for the first chunk of their Queensland Premier Rugby trip to Wests in Brisbane.
Star back-rower Tai Ford was held up in traffic getting to the inner-city Toowong field, forcing Bond coach Sean Hedger into an unplanned reshuffle of the forward pack.
What followed was a disjointed response by the slowstarting visitors, leaving them on the ropes trailing 17-3.
Bond staged a comeback but were ultimately unable to rope in the Bulldogs as the hosts held on for a 25-22 win.
“We changed the forward pack in the warm-up so that led to our lineout being very dysfunctional in the first half,” Hedger said.
Form young gun Nixon Taramai was subsequently moved to Ford’s No.8 role, with Jake Upfield shifted to flanker and veteran Rubin Fuimaono promoted into the starting side at lock.
Another hurdle arose when Uni of Qld GPS Brothers Wests Sunnybank Easts Souths Bond Uni Norths W 7 5 4 4 3 3 2 1 1 L 0 2 2 3 3 4 5 5 6 D 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 Diff BP 201 4 71 3 -13 0 -15 2 6 3 -10 2 -115 0 -84 1 -41 2 Pts 32 23 18 18 17 14 10 7 6 prop Tyron Rota dislocated his elbow before a scrum had even been packed and Bond rapidly found themselves a try down.
Ford, who arrived minutes before kick-off, got his chance off the bench when Upfield went down with an ankle injury.
Starved of possession early – somewhat self-inflicted by set piece woes – Bond switched on after the break.
They held the ball deep in Wests’ territory to have a late crack at snatching victory before an error ended those hopes.
“After our loss to Sunnybank (last month) we talked about that we’re close but we’re putting together 10minute bursts of really good footy,” Hedger said. “(On Saturday) everyone was really disappointed because they know they could have won the game and instead of putting together a good 10-minute block, we put together a good probably 60 minutes.
“It’s just that we were so slow in the first 20 that that’s what ended up cruelling us.”
Bond did sneak in a bonus point to climb out of last place but are quickly falling out of touch with the top four. They face unbeaten University of Queensland on Saturday.