By Finn Morton; Photo – Stephen Tremain

The Southport School have fought back and claimed an important three point victory to keep their premiership hopes on track, defeating the previously undefeated Brisbane Boys College at Miskin Street.

In a quasi GPS grand final on Old Boys Day at BBC, the home side scored two quick tries in the first half to give their fans hope of an upset victory, which would have been the schools first against Southport since 2006.

But TSS were able to claw their way back and capitalised on a poor kicking display from the College. Despite scoring two tries to BBC’s four, Southport snuck home 23-20 in a game filled with drama right up until the final whistle.

BBC coach Shane Drahm was understandably disappointed with the result on Saturday, but said he’s immensely proud of his side.

“I’m not sure if the word deserved to win is the most appropriate, but I know we did more than enough to win. We had a big build-up to this game and we put so much time into getting it right, and we did for most of the game, but a few things didn’t go our way,” Drahm said

“We were all gutted after the game, but we will all learn from it and we will grow strong as a team and as individuals.

“If you gave me the choice to be the coach of the winning TSS team on Saturday or coach of the BBC boys that we had out there, I would choose BBC every day of the week, even though we lost.

“Obviously the scoreboard tells one story, but what the boys have created at BBC is outstanding. They are a special bunch of young men, and whilst I think they deserved the win, they still did an outstanding job. As a coach, I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

BBC will still take plenty of positives out of last Saturday despite the loss, with Drahm confident that his players will learn from it going forward. With the competition as tight as it is, he’s also optimistic that the season is far from over.

“Our defence was outstanding. I cannot fault it. The boys did exactly what we asked of them; they should be proud of themselves.

“As you could tell on the field though, the boys were gutted. We believed we were the better team, and we still do, but unfortunately, we didn’t get the result.

“They will learn from this though. We need to produce that performance for the next three games and go out on a high. Results could still go our way, but we can only control what happens in our games coming up.

“The best thing about the GPS competition is that every game is a grand final. As a coach, you need to pick and choose when to have high-intensity weeks and lower intensity. You cannot go through the whole season at high intensity, otherwise they get mentally fatigued. We put a lot of time into this game and it showed.”

The focus for the College now shifts to Toowoomba on Saturday. It’ll be a tough task for the students from Toowong, as they prepare to head up the Range with their season hanging in the balance.

“Toowoomba are hard to beat up the Range, so we need to recover before Saturday. For me as a coach, the most important thing though it the wellbeing of the boys, and I will not let anything compromise that.

“We will do whatever is necessary to get them back to a good place. We can only control our games, and we have some big games left. We still have Nudgee in a couple of weeks, arguably the best Rugby school in Australia, and probably equally unlucky to lose their game against TSS.

“Yes, the boys can lift. Why? They are a special bunch and they are tight. They will regroup and because of the bond they have, they will end this season on a high and go out with a bang.”

In the other games, Toowoomba bounced back from losses to Southport and Nudgee with an impressive 26-10 victory over Brisbane State High at home.

Ipswich were unable to break a two game losing streak, falling short against Churchie in a 24-22 loss that all but ended their 2019 title hopes.

While Gregory Terrace recorded their first win of the 2019 season, defeating Brisbane Grammar 43-12 at Northgate.