Positive Start: Stars flyer James Dargaville crosses for his side’s 3rd try of the night
Photo: AJF Photography

by Paul Cook –

Brisbane City ran in 37 unanswered points to recover from 20-8 down and defeat Sydney Stars 45-20 in an exciting opening match of the inaugural Buildcorp NRC at a wet and wild Ballymore last night.

Ten tries and not one penalty shot at the posts was certainly a vindication of the law changes that have been introduced as Australia’s third tier competition got underway but a combined tally of over 60 missed tackles would have had the defence coaches watching through their fingers.

A bright start from the visitors saw them bag four tries in an opening forty minutes of pace and precision but on a tough night for kickers, flyhalf Stu Dunbar couldn’t land any of the innovative 3pt conversions, restricting his side to 20pts from a potential 32.

Those eight point tries proved crucial when City’s Chris Kuridrani crossed just before the break and Jake McIntyre added his second conversion. It was the catalyst for a seismic momentum shift, two more City scores in the opening four minutes of the second half confirmed the comeback and the home side went on to control the game to the final whistle, adding two more tries as the Stars early promise faded.

City skipper Dave McDuling was pleased his side had overcome a sticky opening stanza. “It was a pretty rushed preparation so the first half was a little bit scratchy,” he admitted. “But once we got that first forty minutes under our belts, we came out and the passes started to stick and the combinations started to gel. It’s fantastic to get a win first up in the NRC, we’ll just build from here.”

Stars captain Pat McCutcheon saw plenty of positives in defeat. “They came out firing [in the second half] and put some early tries on us and our ball retention was lost a bit in the wet there but we showed that we can play footy when we’ve got ball in hand.”

Stu Dunbar impressed at flyhalf but struggled with his kicking in tough conditions – Photo: AJF Photography

He admitted that a few 3pt conversions when his side were on top may have made a difference. “It would have been nice. Four tries and no conversions, I think our goal-kicker owes me a few frothies there!”

It had been voiced as a concern but it wasn’t until the kick-off was taken down and players from both sides rushed into the opening maul that the colour clash became apparent. Yellow is the new black in the NRC. As if referee Rohan Hoffman didn’t have enough to worry about with the law changes.

The opening minutes were notable only for the early success of City’s driving maul and the ferocity of Queensland Reds centre Samu Kerevi, who left his mark on both Jim Stewart and Michael Hodge with two stinging hits, to the point that the unfortunate Hodge was forced from the field.

The first Stars foray took a leaf out of the Sydney Uni playbook as they broke the line at pace for James Dargaville to make good yards with open field before feeding his wing partner Henry Clunies-Ross. The 20-year-old speedster takes some stopping in that position.

Stu Dunbar couldn’t add the extras and only three minutes later, the Stars found themselves pegged back when some neat footwork from City scrumhalf Nick Frisby took him clear of some static traffic before a terrific flick pass out of the back of the hand put centre Toby White through to the posts.

A Jake McIntyre conversion put the hosts 8-5 ahead – it’s going to take some getting used to isn’t it? – but a line break from the powerful Jim Stewart soon had the Stars back within sight of the City line. However, just as Jock Merriman thought he was over in the corner, Kerevi was on hand to shepherd him into touch.

When Matt Kenny – a replacement for Hodge – dropped the ball cold over the line after great work from Dunbar, the Stars had passed up two opportunities in quick succession but the fact that they were forging such chances would have given them plenty of positivity.

The pace in the Stars’ backline was a concern for City and as the game entered the second quarter, it came to the fore. A well worked play off a centrefield scrum giving Peter Betham licence to run and when he grubbered ahead, City’s defence coughed up the pill for flanker Sam Quinn to scoop up and dive over from a couple of metres.

Sam Quinn finds the line for the Stars second after good work from Peter Betham
Photo: AJF Photography

If Kerevi had looked the goods for the home side, Dargaville was certainly living up to expectations for the visitors and yet another surge from the 22-year-old, straight, hard and true, found the City defence napping and a slide to the corner had the Stars’ third.

They had a fourth by the half hour. A front row containing Wallaby Paddy Ryan, Waratah Jeremy Tilse and US Eagle Tom Coolican, was enjoying a growing advantage over their City counterparts and a succession of scrums earned the Stars the field position from which a Dunbar cut-out pass fed a rampaging Stewart to the line.

Four tries but no conversions as Dunbar struggled in the rain but with a backline looking like scoring from every attack, his profligacy off the boot wasn’t a factor. Yet.

At 20-8, the Stars looked to be in control but a couple of minutes before half-time, an uncharacteristic error opened the door for City to strike. Held-up in contact 10 metres from his own line, Betham tried to offload but found City’s Pettawa Paraka instead. The big prop hurled his 120kg frame at the line but fell short, only for Frisby to sweep wide for Chris Kuridrani to finish with an obligatory swan dive.

Classy: City scrumhalf Nick Frisby showed his Super Rugby credentials with a superb all round performance
Photo: AJF Photography

While Dunbar’s radar was off, Jake McIntyre couldn’t miss and despite being outplayed for large parts of the opening forty, a superb kick from the flyhalf took his team to the sheds only 4pts down at 20-16. Those 3pt conversions will be telling.

City didn’t waste time building on the momentum that late try before the break had given them. Early pressure and neat hands sent Toby White over for his second before Kerevi blew the game open once again. A Betham kick failed to find touch and City countered in style, Kerevi breaking the line with ease and feeding McIntyre off his right shoulder to make it four tries apiece.

The flyhalf converted his own good work and a three try burst in six minutes either side of the break had swung the game back in City’s favour at 29-20, as the rain that had been a lingering drizzle suddenly broke into full blown sheets at Ballymore.

The visitors were suddenly finding fewer holes to plunder as City upped their line speed and the ensuing quarter of an hour saw the Stars go back to basics, using their pack to rumble forward only for slippery conditions and an increased intensity from their opponents at the tackle contest to thwart their advances.

Their task became all the more difficult when City scored their fifth just after the hour and again Kerevi was involved. Spotting an unattended ball as the Stars halfback was cleaned out, he picked up and carried 5 metres before a one handed reverse pass put Kuridrani away on his outside for his second.

Two minutes later they went in for the match winner. Nick Frisby put in a goose step to bamboozle the Stars defence before drawing crowd favourite Harry Parker in off his wing to angle his way to the posts. Game, set and match.

Brisbane City 45 (Toby White 2, Chris Kuridrani 2, Harry Parker, Jake McIntyre tries; Jake McIntyre 5 cons) defeated Sydney Stars 20 (Henry Clunies-Ross, Sam Quinn, Jim Stewart, James Dargaville tries)