Hospital Cup

Brothers First Grade have survived a bruising encounter with a fired up Souths to win the Welsby Cup and retain the Bunter Bowl, edging the home side 29-26 in Round 12.

The match, a top of the table clash between the best attack in the competition in Souths and the best defense in Brothers was a high tempo affair full of aggressive play and occasional boilovers from both teams, which saw the momentum shift on a minute-by-minute basis.

Brothers started the match with the now trademark forwards-dominant attack via territory and the rolling Maul, albeit with punchy Scrum-Half Isaac Tarabay pinching the opener from Hooker Dom Fraser. The scoreline was bolstered ten minutes later through the quick-thinking Ben Dalle Cort finding the corner.

The away side’s ascendancy didn’t last long however, with Queensland Red ans Souths stalwart Connor Vest benefiting from an intercept by Joseph Veramu against the run of play, before an absolute brain explosion from Souths’ Alofa Alofa, striking fiery Flanker Michael Wood in front of the referee saw him red carded. Seb Hanna was then able to make use of the shortfall on Souths’ left wing and hit back.

Momentum shifted again as Veramu leapt over for a pick and drive try before the Magpies’ Helaman Samuela crossed right before half time and Tye James added the extras, giving the home side a 19-17 lead.

Souths continued their ascendancy on the other side of half time with consecutive penalties beginning to rob the Brethren of any momentum to set up a barnstorming 30 meter run from huge Souths Number 8 Reece Meise, breaking no fewer than four tackles to put Brothers under a huge amount of pressure.

Fortunately for the men in butchers stripes, that relief came through some sloppy Souths discipline allowing Brothers to camp in the Souths 22 Bradley Hemopo crashing over to close the gap, before the Brothers forward pack doubled down and put the mighty Dom Fraser over for his twelfth try for the season, the scores now 29-26.

With 20 minutes still to play, the match came down to an attritional grind, with Souths having the lions share of the territory and possession. Brothers defence, the class of the competition in 2024, once again stood up on their own try line and became crucial when Hemopo was sent off with seven minutes to go, spoiling repeated attempts by the Magpies to crash over and steal the game. This proved to be the difference, with Souths’ last gasp attempt being snuffed out down the right sideline after the final siren to give Brothers their ninth win of the season and cement them at the top of the table.

Premier Women

Brothers Women have also put in an incredible effort to dominate Souths Women with a 40-5 scoreline and move themselves back into sixth on the table, and consolidates what has been a much improved run of form for the squad.

Souths Women were on the back foot early, with Melbourne Rebels recruits Crystal Mayes and Jenai Inivale proving a huge handful, contrinuting to the opening three tries. Emma Tanwan was flawless ff the kicking tee all evening, adding extras at every opportunity as Brothers heaped on the pressure through superior possession in both halves of the field.

Souths were brave in defeat, with three of their forwards coming from the field with injuries, crashing over in the final minute to salvage some pride, however the night well and truly belonged to the girls from Crosby Park.

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