Wests bounced back from a tight loss against Brothers in the major semi final to beat UQ 39-27 and set up a Hospital Cup decider against the Filth for the second straight season. 

Brothers beat Wests 26-24 in a thrilling grand final this time last year but skipper Connor Anderson is confident his side can turn the result this weekend. 

“It was a solid win against UQ. We improved in a few areas of our game that we weren’t very good at in the major semi against Brothers,” Anderson told Rugby News.

“We’ve still got to fine tune a few things but I think that performance was a step in the right direction, even though our execution wasn’t quite there.”

Wests trailed 10-0 early in Sunday’s semi final but scored two tries late in the first half to take a 31-20 lead to the break. 

The Bulldogs defended stoically in the second stanza then sealed the win with a try to flyhalf Mason Gordon in the 72nd minute. 

“We defended well for long periods of time, particularly in the second half. They were camped down in our 22 for a while there and we were able to repel them enough to stop them from fighting their way back into the game,” Anderson explained. 

“This week will be a much bigger challenge though, Brothers attack is very sharp.”

Wests beat brothers 39-12 back in late July but fell short in the closing stages of last week’s major semi final against a beefed up Brothers’ outfit. 

“Brothers’ team has changed completely since our match in the last round so there’s no point looking at that game,” Anderson said. 

“In the semi, we probably didn’t kick as well as we could have. There were a few occasions where we kicked high instead of long and then other times when we kicked long instead of high. 

“It sounds like a little thing, but against a good side like Brothers, it can cost you. 

“Defensively, we also weren’t good enough. For us, defence is an attitude thing and it comes down to who wants it more. It’s all effort from our perspective and we had a better result on the weekend because our effort and intent in defence was back to where it needed to be.”

Wests and Brothers meet at 2:45pm at Ballymore on Sunday to cap a massive weekend of rugby over Father’s Day weekend. 

Following the lower grade grand finals on Saturday, Bond and Easts will meet in the Women’s grand final at 11am on Sunday, followed by Wests and Souths in the colts decider. 

Wests will also contest the fifth grade grand final on Saturday and Anderson said he was hoping to celebrate three premierships back at the Kennel on Sunday evening. 

“We’ve been in the big dance three years in a row now, which is huge effort in itself but we want to finish the job this weekend. 

“It should be a special weekend at Ballymore. It was great to get the grand final back there last year, there was a big crowd and great atmosphere and hopefully we get more of the same this weekend.”