Lesson learnt in top victory
EVEN in a “brave” defensive effort to repeatedly repel a beaten University of Queensland outfit, Bond University coach Brad Harris believes there are lessons to be learnt for his players.
Having been disappointed with their Round 1 Queensland Premier Rugby defeat to Brothers, the Bull Sharks defied wet conditions at Robina on Saturday to put on an attacking clinic in a 32-14 win.
Five tries put the visitors out of reach by midway through the second half but what impressed many was the way the Bull Sharks kept protecting their tryline as if the result depended on it through a final 20 minutes of intense pressure.
Only once did UQ convert their mountain of possession and territory into points in that time.
“It was really good to work really hard for each other there,” Harris said. “There’s certainly some learnings in that passage there where we probably had some opportunity to relieve pressure but we didn’t. It didn’t cost us on this occasion but we have got to learn to get a bit better with that. We have got to learn to relieve that pressure and get out of our own end and then try to turn pressure back onto them.
“But I can’t fault their effort and I can’t fault their physicality.”
Inside centre Corbin Kiernan brought a nice directness to the Bond attack and was rewarded with two tries. He
was joined on the scoresheet by Paula Kaho, Nick Turner and Maxwell Dowd, who stepped in for Joey Fittock (concussion) at fullback.
Zach Moimoi ran strongly in his first starting jersey since returning to the club, while halves Harry Nucifora and Dion Taumata were also good.
Bond’s scrum stood out above all, regularly pushing the Red Heavies back.
“Last week we were under a bit of pressure at the scrum; Gav (Luka) stood up and the bench was good when they came on,” Harris said.
Kiernan, 26, added: “It was a huge effort from the forwards to get on top of their forwards all game. That’s big for us.”
Bond are now in outright third on the ladder leading into a Round 3 clash with reigning champions GPS.
“We weren’t a million miles off last week (against Brothers) … but we made a couple of errors that were quite costly. So what this does is this just take a bit of pressure off us in terms of, well we’re on the right track,” Harris said.