Country turns to Coast
THE National Rugby Championship will strive to capitalise on the sport’s Gold Coast momentum on Saturday when reigning premiers Queensland Country host the Western Force at Bond University.
It comes seven days after The Southport School played in front of 7000 people at Nudgee, the Gold Coast District junior and senior grand finals were held at Bond Pirates, and the Wallabies faced Argentina at Cbus Super Stadium – all within the space of eight hours.
“Definitely it’s great that the ARU is putting a bit more time into thinking about the Gold Coast because it’s sort of had a big Brisbane focus on rugby,” said Country lock Angus Blyth. “It’s a pretty good time to be a rugby supporter on the Gold Coast.”
Blyth is a Casuarina product who plays premier rugby for
Bond and made his Queensland Reds debut this season.
Country have made an ideal start to their title defence with a three-from-three record to sit atop the ladder. Blyth though is anticipating a stiff challenge from the fourthplaced Force.
“They have had that World Series tournament and been playing together every couple of weeks so they have got that experience,” he said.
Country will take another game to Bond a fortnight later, coinciding with when the Robina campus will host the fourth leg of the Aon Uni Sevens Series.
Bond (ranked fifth) were slow out of the blocks but hope their win over Griffith University (third) in an exhibition match at halftime of the Wallabies Test on Saturday can kick-start an upturn in form, starting this weekend at the University of Queensland.
“We wanted to go out there and enjoy the experience so we just need to do the same thing during Aon,” Bond speedster Steph Rutherford said of the Cbus match. “We’d love to get a medal next round.”