Wait is over as Uni pip premier

THE drought is over.

Some 105 days after they opened their season with a promising away victory, Bond University have a second win after toppling premiers Brothers 18-17 on Saturday.

“Finally,” was the relieved reaction of coach Sean Hedger.

It was Bond’s influx of young guns that led the way.

Veteran halves Vitori Buatava and Scott Daruda sat the whole game on the bench as the likes of Harry Nucifora steered the ship.

Nucifora’s Australian under-20 teammate Dylan Riley was among the tryscorers, while 21-year-old flyhalf Mitch Third stepped up as stand-in captain when regular skipper Sam Clifton was substituted late in the contest.

At that point, Bond were still behind but they mustered the energy to plot a long-range attacking raid to send Tai Ford over for the winning try.

“It was huge for the team not only to get a win on the board but to beat Brothers at Brothers is probably one of the tougher games so that was a real positive,” Clifton said.

“We had a few of our 20s boys come back which really helped add some confidence.”

That added confidence helped them overturn a 12-8 halftime deficit.

“We knew we could do it because we thought we were the dominant team,” Clifton said. “It was just a few of our mistakes which led to their tries so we knew that if we could clean those areas up we could potentially come away with the win. That was really all that was said (at halftime).”

Clifton said Tongan recruit Eddie Aholelei had made an obvious difference upon being injected into the game.

“A couple of the older heads in the reserves, when they came on about 15 minutes into the second half, that’s when we really started to get a bit more direct in our running,” he said.

“Eddie, one of our big props, he was just an older head who just carried tough and got us over the ad (advantage) line a few times so it was good.”

Bond’s win has shattered the premiership defence of Brothers, who are now eight points outside the top four.