Bond just pipped again
BOND University’s narrow 2016 finals miss is fresh in captain Tai Ford’s mind when looking for positives from a gut-wrenching start to their Queensland Premier Rugby season.
For the second straight match, Bond surrendered a lead to fall just short of victory.
First, it was 32-25 to Wests. On Saturday, it was 36-31 to GPS after the Ashgrove-based side snatched the lead with a pick-and-drive try in the dying moments.
Ford said players were left “gutted” as the full-time whistle sounded, knowing how costly it could prove come the pointy end of what promises to be a close season.
“That’s exactly it, especially seeing the other teams, it’s going to be a really tight comp,” he said. “We have to win all these close games.”
But the fact that they have at least secured a bonus point in both matches is cause for optimism, given the nature of how they missed out on a spot in the 2016 play-offs.
“It was (two) years ago when we won the same amount of games as Sunnybank but because of those bonus points that they got and we didn’t get, they actually got top four and we just missed out,” Ford recalled.
“So even though we are getting these unfortunate losses, we are still coming away with points.
“We have got UQ (University of Queensland) next week and hopefully after their loss they are not feeling too great.
“Our boys are actually feeling more confident each week as the comp goes on.
“The boys were gutted (to lose to GPS) but now they know that we’re just missing out by a hairline, that we are a competitive team and that we actually need to train that much harder now to actually get over the line and stay in front.”
Ford, who scored two tries, was planning to spend the season playing at openside flanker but has already been forced to revert to No.8 with few other options to cover for the injured Zach Moimoi.
“I had to go back to No.8, it was a better thing for the team,” he said. “The guys that were playing there, they weren’t eights, they were sevens so I had to bite the bullet.”
Bond face UQ at St Lucia on Saturday. The latter lost to Brothers 39-33 in Round 2.