Brothers top after thriller
BROTHERS are now outright leaders of the Townsville and Districts Rugby League competition after scoring a comeback 27- 26 win over Western Lions.
The top- of- the- table clash lived up to all expectations as Brothers clawed back from a 26- 14 deficit to square things up inside the final 10 minutes, before hooker Sam Foster booted the winning field goal on the stroke of full- time.
Brothers remain the only unbeaten team in A grade TDRL after five rounds, while previous ladder leaders Lions believe they will only grow as a result of their close loss after winning their previous games by more than 20 points.
Brothers veteran Roy Baira, 37, provided the game’s plot twist by coming out of retirement to play Saturday’s clash at the Townsville Sports Reserve, his first game since the 2014 grand final.
“When the game was on the line Roy Baira, Sam Foster and Obe Geia knew what they needed to do, they executed and the rest of the team just got behind them,” Brothers coach Dave Ackers said.
“We would’ve liked to have controlled the ball a bit more and applied a bit of pressure, which we managed to do late in the game, but I think our ball control let us down at stages throughout the first and second half.
“But when the game was on the line we got our composure and applied pressure with our defence.”
The Lions outscored Brothers five tries to four but could only boot three conversions to Brothers’ five, with most Lions tries scored out wide.
The Lions led 16- 14 at halftime, thanks to tries from captain Nathaniel Bowman, Shaq Congoo and Joe Veukiso. Brothers got theirs through Brenn Foster and A. J. Willis.
A win looked likely for the Lions when Budhagi Gibuma and Daniel Pickering scored quickly after the break, and handling errors saw Brothers pinned in their own half.
But the experience of Sam Foster and Baira shone through when it counted, with Baira putting Willis into space out wide before Willis passed inside for Brenn Foster to score, and Willis soon got on the board by finishing off a superb piece of adlib play also involving George Moananu.
Sam Foster then kept his composure to slot the winning field goal despite the Lions’ desperate goal line defence.
“We’re making a name for ourselves at the moment as well and we have to live up to those big games, so I think we’ll learn from it,” Bowman said.
“Whenever you lose a game by one point – and you were leading for most of it – it’s very disappointing, but at the end of the day we knew it was going to be a one- point game.
“We’ll get another shot at them, and to come back down and play a team at our level was something we needed.”
Centrals ended their winless season, beating University 50- 6, Burdekin downed Charters Towers 38- 10 and Herbert River beat Norths 76- 4.