Harry’s top gun in Bond pursuit
QUEENSLAND Premier Rugby commentator Dallan Murphy has identified Harry Nucifora as the man to lead a Bond University charge towards the play-offs.
Former Reds player Murphy has been impressed by the Bull Sharks captain and scrumhalf, who he feels has what it takes to go to the next level.
“I don’t think you can go past Nucifora,” Murphy said when asked which Bond player had stood out to him in 2019.
“I think he’s just clean, he’s crisp, he obviously leads the team really well, he goal kicks.
“If they are to do well and continue to do well, he has got to be the core player that is going to drive that.”
Nucifora’s path to representative honours have been blocked by the likes of Tate McDermott and James Tuttle, with Murphy saying he “feels for him a little bit.”
“He is a class act and he is probably someone who should be playing professional rugby – if not here then somewhere else,” he added.
Bond take a 3-7 record into their Round 12 home game against GPS today, who are flying in second place.
GPS have built much of their success off being the best defensive side in the competition, conceding just 17 points a match.
“What they do really well is they get up off the line,” Murphy said.
“They’re a hardened team. They have got a lot of experience, especially in that forward pack with the likes of (Dan) Gorman, (Michael) Richards, Mitch King and those guys, they’re just belting teams.
“Not in a way of massive shots but they have just been handling people and just kind of strangleholding them and their set piece is doing the talking from there.”
Bond can ill-afford to drop another game now; Murphy believes they can still bring themselves back into the finals race as they did last year.
“They have got a lot of quality players, they just probably haven’t been able to get over the line in a lot of situations … I still think they are close to a top four side,” he said.
IF THEY ARE TO DO WELL AND CONTINUE TO DO WELL, HE HAS GOT TO BE THE CORE PLAYER THAT IS GOING TO DRIVE THAT
DALLAN MURPHY ON NUCIFORA