By Michael Nunn (QRL correspondent)
Tweed Seagulls and Brisbane Tigers will both been part of the finals next weekend, but the Turn to Me Round of the Hostplus Cup would provide an insight into what condition they both arrive.
Tweed had marched from ninth to fifth in the past month and are bubbling away in the background getting ready for finals, while the Tigers had won four of the past five games against Tweed.
The Brisbane Tigers and Tweed Seagulls love to attack and move the ball, but the Tigers read the attacking program for the day and once a solid foundation had been laid by Haele Finau and William Samuel, that gave the Tigers attacking momentum.
The scoring started after a flick pass from Darren Nicholls found Haele who spotted some slow marker defence to score under the posts and bring up the Tigers 15000 point in the Hostplus Cup.
Tweed struck straight back through their forwards; moving the ball to the edges and through their forwards to create space and time for each other. Joshua Patterson, Braden Robson and Sam Lisone made sure they were all linking up to get the Seagulls down the field, with JJ Collins crashing over on the end of a well-timed pass.
The Tigers came back through their left-hand side and coming out of yardage it was Haele again that got behind the Seagulls and was able to offload for Bronson Garlick who looked straight inside to find the ever-reliable fullback speedster Tony Pellow to score.
The next time the Tigers got down there, they moved the ball from side-to-side, moving the big Tweed forwards around and creating confusion with offloads.
As the ball zinged around, it found Pellow who found the in-goal with a well-placed kick for Nicholls to score under the posts and give the Tiger the perfect start at 18-6.
A mid-field scrum 10 metres out following a Tigers error gave the Seagulls a good reward as they shaped right and Toby Sexton unleashed Lindon McGrady who delivered a well-timed pass for Jamayne Isaako to score in the corner.
This game was proving that both teams would score if they could gain a repeat set or get good ball.
The game was suddenly 18-18 after a great run by Lisone charged the Seagulls down the field. Tweed went straight to their dangerous left-hand side and got the ball in Will Brimson’s hands as quickly as possible in his 50th Hostplus Cup game.
The Tweed six has been a revelation with 10 try assists this season and he sets up his outside men beautifully, but this time the crafty half went himself and found Robson to score back on the inside.
At halftime, Tweed Seagulls and Brisbane Tigers had shown great attention to detail in attack with offloads. Both teams had linked well always finding a player when the option presented.
The Tigers found themselves down field again and able to apply pressure to the Seagulls to start the second half and a short kick from Jayden Nikorima produced a Tweed error. Zak Taibi was there ready to get his fourth try in two weeks.
The Tigers decided to start the second half going up in twos.
When Nicholls was hit after he kicked the ball, the Tigers took the two-point option and added the penalty goal to be ahead 24-18 with Jonah Pezet knocking it over to give the Tigers the converted try difference.
When Tweed committed another penalty offence, the Tigers took the two and edged eight points in front with Pezet making no mistakes in front.
The rain didn’t stop the Tigers getting to an edge and Bronson Garlick was the recipient of the Pezet fake-and-come-back-to-the-blind side play that worked last week against the Capras.
While the Tigers had started the second half exactly the same as the first half with all the points to lead 32-18 with 20 minutes to play, Tweed weren’t done with yet.
They spread it to the left and Sexton wasn’t able to penetrate, so he quickly jumped over to the right and linked with fullback McGrady who drew the Tigers to him, passing to an unmarked Treymain Spry to score and get the Seagulls back to 32-24 with 11 minutes to play.
The conversion from McGrady brought up his 250th goal in the Hostplus Cup.
When a front rower is pointing and shouting that there is an attacking option he’d like to explore, you better be sure to give him the ball.
Lisone scored his second try in the Hostplus Cup with the front rower starting and finishing the movement for Tweed after he got the Seagulls down field and able to attack to their preferred left-hand side. Lisone came from the left to right and ran into the line for Sexton, who went out the back for Patston who looked inside and found Lisone running freely to score.
It was now a two-point game.
It was the Tigers hooker Finau that started the point scoring in the sixth minute and it was Finau that ended it in the 78th minute, scoring a double under the posts and secure his side a last round win in a game that provided 68 points and the Tigers seventh spot.
Main image: BJ Aufaga-Toomaga. Photo: Vanessa Hafner / QRL
