First Grade

A James O’Connor led Brothers First grade has rediscovered their mojo and romped into the Hospital Cup Grand Final with a solid 33-26 over old sparring partners Wests at Yoku Road at the weekend. The result delivers back-to-back Grand Final appearances for Brothers, with the club hoping to become the first in 21 year to win consecutive premierships. Further buoying this remarkable result is the fact that all five Grades and Colts 3 are also straight through to the finals, ensuring that the Butchers Stripes will be well represented at Ballymore in two weeks’ time.

In recent times Brothers-Wests match-ups have been bruising affairs full of attacking rugby, with the Fijian-led flair of the Wests backs vying for dominance against Brother’s centers combinations in what has always been see-sawing battles of brawn and wits. This Semi Final was to be no exception, with the insane acrobatics of gigantic Winger Suliasi Vunivalu recovering Wests initial kick-off and getting the ball to the left edge to put Charlie Tupu in before Brothers’ hapless defense could even consider forming a structure.

This blitzkrieg attack gave the Bulldogs plenty of momentum in the early phases, with the Wests backs running riot and creating space seemingly on a whim. This resulted in Wests pulling a near identical shift to their opening try, this time allowing Henry Speight to sneak through for a classy try in the left corner.

Brothers needed to turn the tide quickly, and began to find some territory, however this hard won gain was lost when big prop George Tuineau went to the Bin with a yellow card for cynical play, making a ludicrous tackle from an offside position, and allowing the Bulldogs to march toward their try-line once again. These gains would be short-live however, with a relieving penalty to Brothers getting them in a position for Isaac Tarabay to weave up-field and then involve Michael Wood in a massive turnover 10 out from Wests try-line. This resulted in a quick tap and some deft handling to get the ball wide to Seb Hanna to score Brothers’ first points in the match.

Wests would then strike again from a move starting 40 meters out, with Mosese Dawai dragging three defenders with him to go over the line and eke the score out to 19-7. Brothers didn’t have to wait long to hit back, however, with Tuineau having just returned from the naughty corner smashing his way over the line two minuted later off the back of a maul to narrow the gap to 19-14, O’Connor not being able to narrow the gap further before half time through a missed penalty kick.

Despite Brothers slow start, there was a noticeable shift in intent from the Brethren as they opened up for the second half, and they capitalised off an early penalty for Tarabay to duck over the line off the back of a stalled maul, selling a sweet dummy on his way over the chalk. Brothers toiled hard int he following ten minutes, choking out Wests’ counter-attacks, and gaining more territory through penalties. This allowed Brother’s famous maul to do its work again, with Dom Fraser getting his just deserts and giving the Butchers Stripes a converted try lead. But, with Wests desperate to avoid playing again next week, the assault was always going to come, and Wests began to heap pressure on Brother’s defense, peppering the line and finally coming away with another class back line move, getting the ball out to Vunivalu and allowing him to tie the match up after Louis Werchon added the extras.

With the game on the line, Brothers wisest heads stood up to break the deadlock, with Ryan Smith bumping through to give Wood some space, before O’Connor and Fraser combined to finish off a silky little move to move the needle to A 33-26 score line. Despite throwing everything into the final ten minutes, Wests could not break Brothers’ resolve, consigning them to facing UQ in sudden death next week.

2nd Grade

Brothers 2nd Grade was looking like needing a miracle to make the Grand Final with 20 minutes to go, down 26-12 before the men from Albion mounted a stunning counter to even the scored up on full time, relegating a stunned UQ to having to play for their finals future next week. Benn Dalle Cort led the revival, scoring on half time before Oliver Harvey made a crucial score at the 55 minute mark. Ryan Shepherd then iced a try with Athen Waia-McGuiggan taking the extras. It was a tense final 10 minutes for Brothers who held out the Students to remain undefeated in 2024.

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