By Tim Mosey

East, Jeeps, Bond and Norths all picked up wins on a Saturday afternoon that proved their is still plenty of rugby to be played before finals kick off in early August. Here’s what I took from the weekend.

Bond on The Move

Bond University sit one win outside the top four, after picking up their second win in a row.

On Saturday they removed Wests from their path with the power of a rogue tidal wave.

Flyhalf Dion Taumata and young fullback Joey Fittock  are forming an impressive competition and expertly directed Bond’s attack around Sylvan Rd,

Driving into the back half of the season, the tightness of the top four means Bond may only need three or four more wins to secure a finals birth.

Ladies and Tigermen

Two weeks ago, the Curse of Ladies Day struck home sides Brothers and UQ.

The opposite happened for Easts at David Wilson Field on Saturday.

They had their match against UQ pretty much sewn up at halftime.

The scoreboard end of the ground was filled with a marquee and plenty of interested spectators.

The stand too, was filled with hearty home side support.

Campbell Wakely struggled to hear the calls when throwing into UQ’s lineout due to the boisterous voice of the local support.

What a spectacle it was. The stand looked like it was full of colts and lower grade faithful, XXXX cans in hand*, blue and gold striped jerseys everywhere and plenty of club rugby banter.

The Tigers are in full roar in 2018.

UQ had a long afternoon away from home.

(*always drink responsibly)

Eagles Soar

Norths gave their committed supporters something to cheer about at Shaw Rd.

The Eagles first half point-scoring spree was enough to put the match to bed early.

The final stages of the game saw a series of scrum resets.

This gave the home forward pack the chance to engage in some friendly piggy to piggy banter – much to the amusement of home viewers picking up the sound through the ref’s microphone.

Once the scrum had set and played moved on, an errant pass from the Bank enabled Norths’ Chris Wellington pick up and dash 45m to put icing on the light blue cake.

It’s Raining, It’s Pouring

The rain had a dampening effect on round nine particularly the 5-0 encounter between Souths and UQ.

In round 10 it was a high scoring affair across all games. Seven out of eight sides scored more than 20 points – even if they lost.

Is this a result of the weather conditions? Or are teams clocking off in defence perhaps late in matches when they feel they have the game won?

Coaches would be disappointed if that were the case.

It will be the teams who are clinical in their attack AND ravenous in their attack without the ball (defence) that will prevail.

Tight Competition

This is the closest QLD Premier rugby competition in years.

One win separates GPS on top and UQ in fourth. In fact UQ dropped two spots down to fourth after their loss to now third placed Easts.

Throw Bond and Sunnybank into the mix chasing after top four births, and the next nine weeks are going to be intriguing.

It is exciting that the competition certainly appears to be wide open with any team able to beat one another come Saturday.

The teams that can maintain consistency in their play and inherently minimise their injury rates will give themselves the best chance in September.