We don’t often get grand finals in schoolboy rugby but the stars have aligned in Brisbane this winter.

Defending premiers Nudgee will host Brisbane State High on Saturday afternoon in front of a huge crowd at Ross Oval with everything on the line.

“It’s a really exciting end to the year,” Nudgee coach Andrew Scotney told Rugby News.

“I got to experience a decider like this back in 2018 when we played TSS in the last round but we haven’t had one since then.”

Nudgee defeated BBC 54-21 to set up a final round showdown against State High and Scotney said he’s been pleased with his side’s progress in recent weeks.

“We were happy with our performance against BBC. They are a strong team and had plenty to play for last weekend. The week before against Toowoomba, we had a really slow start coming off a bye, but got going in the second half.

“Then last week, we started a lot better against BBC and kept going.”

Outside of a tight win over Churchie back in round three, Nudgee have been dominant throughout the GPS season, winning their other six games by an average of over 30 points.

But Scotney said he and his players know their toughest challenge will come in the final game of the season.

“They’ve got a lot of good players. Their captain Langi in the second row is strong, they’ve got a good goal kicking No.10 and a couple of hard running centres that have had good seasons as well.

“There is a lot more to State High than just the No.8. He’s obviously got a lot of x-factor and scores and sets up a lot of tries but there is a lot of work going on around him.”

Scotney admitted it’s been hard to ignore the form of star State High No.8 Roman Suilepa who has dominated the competition this year, but said the basketball-bound No.8 hasn’t been the only focus at Nudgee this week.

“We’ve got to focus on what’s worked for us all year. They’ve got threats in their team right across the park and we’ll spend a bit of time looking at how we can defend that, but most of our time has been spent on ourselves and building on our performance from last weekend.”

A huge crowd is expected to watch Saturday’s quasi-grand final and Scotney said he’s excited for both squads of young men and their supporters.

“The weather is looking good and Ross Oval is a great place to play rugby so it should be a great afternoon.

“I imagine there will be a big crowd excited to watch a good game of footy.

“The best team always ends up winning the competition and we’re hoping that’s us on Saturday afternoon.”