Bond’s fate in other hands
BOND University will walk the finals tightrope after a disappointing Queensland Premier Rugby loss to Wests.
The Bull Sharks, who came agonisingly close to making the top four in both 2016 and 2018, slipped to seventh with two rounds to go after the Bulldogs cast them aside 37-12 on Saturday.
“We’re enormously disappointed with the result,” said coach Grant Anderson.
“We certainly didn’t play to our potential and to the standards that we expect as a group. Full credit to Wests, who probably played their best game all season. We’ll just move on now to next week and focus on Norths.”
Helping the Bull Sharks’ case is the fact that University of Queensland (third) and Wests (fifth) have byes to come, plus they themselves have matches against bottom two clubs Norths and Sunnybank.
Norths and Sunnybank have just five wins between them this year.
“We need to win both of our games, which is what we can control, and then rely on one or two results going our way to see if we can sneak into fourth spot on the ladder,” Anderson added.
Bond realistically need to win both of their remaining matches by a bonus point and hope for at least two of the following: QLD PREMIER RUGBY ROUND 16
UQ lose to GPS, Easts take no more than four points from their games against Sunnybank and Brothers, and that next week’s Souths v Wests match has no bonus points.
One positive from Saturday was the performance of Reds player Hamish Stewart, who could be vital to their finals charge.
“He did really well at 12 and he is just going to get better and better the more footy he plays with us,” Anderson said.
Dan Boardman (stomach), Angus Blyth (shoulder) and Luke Papworth (knee) all left Toowong under injury clouds.