Life at St Lucia has been a rollercoaster so far this season. 

At times, UQ have looked like the side that missed the playoffs last season, but on other occasions, they’ve looked more like the team that played in the previous seven grand finals. 

“We haven’t won two straight games and we haven’t lost two straight games. It’s been a pretty strange start to the season to be honest with you,” Red Heavies coach Elton Berrange told Rugby News. 

“But it was probably to be expected. We started the season with a lot of new players and we have trialled a lot of new combinations. We’ve used a lot of players already and have started to settle in to our groove a little and I’m hoping we see the benefits of that over the next few weeks. 

“We know what we’re capable of. Now we’ve just got to find a way to replicate our best rugby week to week.”

UQ lost to Wests in round one then beat Norths a week later. They fell short against Jeeps in round three, upset Brothers in round four, lost to Easts in round five, then smashed Souths in round six. 

After a bye last weekend, Berrange is hoping for smoother sailing in the weeks ahead. 

“I was really pleased with our performances against Brothers and Souths but I was equally disappointed with our effort against Easts. Against Jeeps, we got it strategically wrong but the Easts loss came down to effort and that was really disappointing. 

“We got the coaches and our leadership group together over the bye week and spoke about how we need to improve our standards. If you let little one percenters slip at training all the time, eventually they add up and cost you and I think that’s been our story at times this year.”

On Saturday, UQ travel to play a Sunnybank side who blew a 12-point lead and drew with Souths last week. Despite that, Berrange is wary of the Dragons.

“Sunnybank are a very good side. Liam McNamara had a great game last weekend and directed them around really well. Pita Halaifonua is a ball running threat at No.8, then they’ve got some big, powerful backs as well. 

“We’ll look to play the game in the parts of the field that we want to play in and then we’ll look to get out of the other areas as quickly as we can. 

“Hopefully we can put some pressure on at set piece time and if we can do that and if our effort areas are there, then we’ll be okay.”

In the rounds other matches, an in-form Easts outfit will look for their fourth straight win against Wests, Brothers take on Norths and Souths host Sunnybank. 

With two games remaining in the opening round of the season, UQ are four competition points outside of the top four and could sit anywhere from second to eighth at the midway point of the regular season.

“Some of the results this year have been really interesting and it shows that if you’re a little bit off, like we have been at times this year, then you’re going to get smacked,” Berrange said. 

“It’ll be good to look at the table after round nine when everyone has had their bye. 

“But for us, we’ve got five home games in the second round and I think we can finish the regular season strongly. 

“But before that, we’ve got back to back away games in the coming weeks against Sunnybank and Bond and we’re targeting both those games as two we want to win.”