By LIZ MOORE

In a season with more unexpected gains and losses across all clubs than usual, Norths counts New Zealander Nathan Tweedy among its best additions for 2020.

The 24-year-old backrower played in the New Zealand Under 20s trial squad as well as the Hurricanes Under 20s before playing for both the Magpies in Hawke’s Bay and Hong Kong Scottish over the last couple of years.

Tweedy was playing rugby in Hong Kong when the Covid-19 crisis started unfolding earlier this year, and with the Hong Kong riots also afoot, he made the decision to follow his travel and rugby bug a little closer to home.

Through a mate of a mate, he found himself in touch with Norths Premier backs coach, Patrick Byron, and is grateful for the welcome he’s been shown at the club and as a first-timer to Brisbane.

“They were great with helping out with the transition, sorting me out with accommodation and got me a job straight off the bat,” said Tweedy who is now rugby coaching at a couple of schools and running fitness boot camps at Norths.

“They looked after me on all fronts so I was pretty lucky in that regard.

“All the boys have been great getting us involved. I didn’t ever feel like we were the new ones, if that makes sense. We were just sort of straight in,” Tweedy said, attending his first training session the day after he flew into Brisbane in February.

“I’ve found my feet quite quickly and I’m actually really, really enjoying it.

“There’s quite a lot of new players at the club this year, it’s been really enjoyable all trying to link together and put some good performances out.

“Everyone just works hard and gets on with it.”

Tweedy describes the rugby in Australia as “fast”.

“The rugby here’s fast for sure. It’s good, there’s a real good quality of players here.

“I think the difference here is in New Zealand we’ve got the Hurricanes region for instance, and then within that region we’ve got five different provinces that they select out of.

“Whereas here in Brisbane with the Reds, you’ve just got everyone in the one location so you get a lot of quality players coming through. So it’s definitely a really good standard of rugby, I’m enjoying it a lot.”

Tweedy is also enjoying the quality of players at Norths and the depth running through to second grade.

“It’s a good dynamic. We’ve got a lot of people with a lot of knowledge, and it shows in our training, which is going really well. Just want to keep getting better and keep those performances up.

Tweedy was happy with how his team played in their trial match against UQ on the weekend after the rain-drenched shortened game against Souths the week before.

“We played well, but obviously didn’t get the result. We definitely let a few soft tries in and were disappointed with the loss, but we’ll definitely get more confidence from it moving forward.”

As for who he’s excited to meet on the field, Tweedy is up for everything the Queensland Premier competition has for him.

“I’ve come over a bit blind, not really knowing. I’m just excited just to play some footy again. It’s been a long wait. I’m keen to play anyone, play everyone really.

“I’m just excited to play some teams I haven’t played before and come up against some players I haven’t played before. Just everyone really.”

IMAGE: BRENDAN HERTEL / QRU