Bond dish it up to Uni but run away with spoon
BOND University were unable to pull off the upset of the Queensland Premier Rugby season as hoped but rounded out a bleak year with at least some signs of improvement.
The competition’s sole Gold Coast team could not keep pace with dominant minor premiers University of Queensland on Saturday, fall- ing 45-29 at St Lucia. Coach Sean Hedger would have taken optimism from seeing Zach Moimoi, stand-in skipper Mitch Third, Fred Keil, Hayden Sargeant and Joshua Walker all find their way onto the scoresheet.
Bond endured a 15-week winless drought this season as their attack faltered. But the side have managed to score 11 tries and 75 points in the past two weeks – a drastic improvement on their prior average of 18 points a game.
Nonetheless, they were unable to avoid the dreaded wooden spoon, giving the Robina club a big off-season task to push in 2018 for their longawaited maiden finals berth since taking over from the Gold Coast Breakers.
With the regular season now done and dusted, the four clubs progressing to the semifinals are University of Queensland, GPS, Sunnybank and Wests.
A brutal scoreline loomed on Saturday when GPS reached 31-0 by halftime against Easts but they were forced to hold off a fast-finishing Tigers side for a 38-29 win.
Wests came from behind to beat Norths 25-14 while Brothers pipped Sunnybank 36-34.