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Pace of the game is getting to our boys a bit. Down 13-8 at halftime. Spirit try by Koteka off a good maul 5m out. Converted by Prior. Burton off early mixed us up a bit too.
I'm liking Prior's kicking
Laugh and the world laughs with you.......
......cry and you'll weaken your beer
Wow, how is Scoble even in the team. Passenger. Pie chucker.
Only 3 Force players on the field in the second half, not a bad effort by the PPG boys. Played with good mana.
29-16 to Brisbane city.
SPIRIT FALLS TO BRISBANE CITY IN GRAND FINAL REPLAY
The Perth Spirit has opened its 2015 Buildcorp National Rugby Championship season with a 29-16 loss to Brisbane City in their grand final replay at Ballymore in Brisbane tonight.
The visitors trailed the reigning champions 13-8 at half time, with Brisbane City running in two tries to one in the second stanza to claim the 13-point victory.
For the Spirit, the team was ably led by hooker Heath Tessmann, who spearheaded a powerful scrummaging and set piece performance against a heftier Queensland pack, while scrumhalf Ian Prior, who was shifted to flyhalf in the second minute of the match following an injury to Luke Burton, guided the team around ably, backed up by a strong kicking game in general play and off the tee.
Tessmann said the team’s performance was one to build on moving through the tournament.
“We were caught a little bit off-guard in that first half and were holding back a bit,” he said. “In the second half we let the shackles off a bit and looked to play a bit more and really open it up.
“We were very happy with [our set piece and rolling maul]. We knew that any team coached by Stilesy [Nick Stiles] would target us at the set piece, and I was really happy with how our young guys stepped up. Jermaine [Ainsley], our tighthead, has to play in the [Pindan Premier Grade] grand final on Sunday, so it’ll be a tough week for him.
“We were good in those areas though and it gives us something to build on.”
Despite an end-to-end, torrid opening exchange, the first points would not come until the 20th minute when Brisbane City fullback Junior Laloifi made an incisive run before putting Karmichael Hunt in under the posts, with Jake McIntyre converting for an 8-0 lead.
They home side extended the margin to 13 points 10 minutes later when Liam Gill and Laloifi combined to put the fullback over in the left-hand corner.
The Spirit crossed for their first try of the season through Kane Koteka five minutes from the break, when the Wests Scarbrorough flanker was on the end of a rolling maul to crash over to help bring up the 13-8 half-time score line.
Brisbane City centre Samu Kerevi opened the scoring for the Queenslanders in the 54th minute, with Spirit No.8 Angus Cottrell responding three minutes later when he shrugged off a defender from close range to score. Prior again added the extras to again bring his side to within five points at 21-16.
With eight minutes remaining, McIntyre capitalised on a weight of pressure when he crossed, and while the Spirit had three promising opportunities late in the piece, handling errors disarmed each one, with Brisbane City running out 13-point victors.
The Spirit will return to Perth for their opening home fixture of the competition against the North Harbour Rays on Saturday, 29 August at McGillivray Oval.
Season Tickets for the 2015 Perth Spirit season are on sale now! Click here to get tickets to all four home games for the price of three:
2015 Buildcorp National Rugby Championship – Week One
Perth Spirit v Brisbane City
Ballymore Stadium, Brisbane
Brisbane City 29 (Karmichael Hunt, Junior Laloifi , Samu Kerevi, Jake McIntyre tries; Jake McIntyre 2 conversions, Henry Taefu conversion) defeated Perth Spirit 16 (Kane Koteka, Angus Cottrell tries; Ian Prior 2 conversions)
Perth Spirit: 1. Chris Heiberg (Perth Bayswater), 2. Heath Tessman (c) (Nedlands), 3. Oliver Hoskins (Cottesloe), 4. Rory Walton (Wests Scarborough), 5. Ross Haylett-Petty (Cottesloe), 6. Chris Alcock (UWA), 7. Kane Koteka (Wests Scarborough), 8. Angus Cottrell (Associates), 9. Ian Prior (Nedlands), 10. Luke Burton (UWA), 11. Brad Lacey (Wests Scarborough), 12. Maalonga Konelio (Joondalup), 13. Ammon Matuauto (Associates), 14. Sevuloni Mocenacagi, 15. Albert Nikoro (Wests Scarborough). Res: 16. Harry Scoble (UWA), 17. Francois van Wyk (UWA), 18. Jermaine Ainsley (Nedlands), 19. Riley Winter (Wests Scarborough), 20. Richard Hardwick (UWA), 21. Ryan Louwrens (Cottesloe), 22. Byron Hutchinson (Wanneroo), 23. Daley Harper (Kalamunda).
Brisbane City: 1. Pettowa Paraka, 2. Andrew Ready, 3. Sam Talakai, 4. Corey Thomas, 5. Cadeyrn Neville, 6. Luke Beauchamp, 7. Liam Gill (c), 8. Scott Higginbotham, 9. Nick Frisby, 10. Jake McIntyre, 11. Alex Gibbon, 12. Samu Kerevi, 13. Karmichael Hunt, 14. Chris Kuridrani, 15. Junior Laloifi. Res: 16. Ryan Freeney, 17. Marcus Vanzati, 18. Feao Fotuaika, 19. James Moore, 20. Criff Tupou,
21. Tim Smith, 22. Henry Taefu, 23. Mika Tela.
Referee: Will Houston
Dear Lord, if you give us back Johnny Cash, we'll give you Justin Bieber.
Not as good as I expected but I've seen a lot worse!
Yet again our ball handling skills are letting us down. (Ellie) I thought Priors kicks were a bit to long and not well chased. Apart from that not the worst start in the world.
Reffing left a bit to be desired. How the guy from Brizzie took out our guy with the VERY late high tackle didn't go to the bin is amazing. I can only assume that the refs dog didn't see it or the forward pass for the first try! I'm sure Brizzie supporters can fin similar gripes so maybe it's just sour grapes from me!
May the FORCE be with you!
Interesting that Karmichael Hunt is playing NRC rugby when I'm sure the ARU would have originally expected him to be one of the 31 being announced for the RWC squad tomorrow........
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
Good game. Liam gill was a class above all the others. Thought Walton and Lacey gave it a good crack. Tessman was great while he was on. Drop ball from the props when tired was annoying
Beaten by a better forward pack frankly. Team looked good when they went at them at the end, and in patches prior that, but the kicking was not great and neither were some of the decisions. Seen worse though and they may do OK through the season, especially if they scrum as well as they did later in the game.
I thought it was a good game for our boys.
I was impressed by the scrum overall, the front row that completely destroyed the spirit in the GF last year didn't have much more than parity. Hoskins was monstered once or twice, but to their credit the rest of the pack picked him up and we made a contest of it.
The reserve props (particularly Van Wyk) were fantastic, Scoble wasn't.
Too much dropped ball was the story of the night, apart from Samu Kerevi, who is apparently allowed to carry a poleax when playing in Brisbane, I bet he won't be cited for that late, high hit. To think that we lost a player for 10 to a yellow (which frankly was deserved) only to have Kerevi's (which was IMHO at least as severe if not worse) virtually ignored was an insult.
Great work from the boys, and nice to hear Heath talking about guys backing up for the club final. It appears that the players aren't shirking their duties in that regard.
What's the news on Kane, he was dragged early, was that to keep Westie from singlehandedly dismantling rugbyWA HQ over him not playing the GF? or is he hurt?
Brad Lacey played pretty much 80, Albert Nikoro wasn't far off that, Who else needs to back up?
C'mon the![]()
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Average at best.
Same rubbish that the force throw out!
Pretty good game I thought, still not keen on the experimental laws. The referees and their assistants need to keep up with the game, maybe the TMO needs to become involved. some terrible and game changing decisions were made.
Good performances from Spirit players, Tessman, Walton and Prior played well. Walton surprised why can't he take the next step up to Super Rugby.
Backs were just adequate, Louwrens appeared to be slow.
Commentators need to lift their game, I didn't realise Burton was off until 20 minutes in. Maybe I was at the fridge.
Looking forward to more games
Anyone know if there is a replay of the game anywhere besides on fox?
Should be ok the spirit website either today or tomorrow if fox can be believed.
C'mon the![]()
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They were putting them up on the ARU YouTube page last year. Normally took them a day or two though
Great game, Fucken battled right through to the 80!