McInnes Wilson Lawyers Brisbane City claim comeback win to remain in NRC finals hunt

McInnes Wilson Lawyers Brisbane City have claimed a come-from-behind 28-27 victory over the NSW Country Eagles in their Round 6 National Rugby Championship (NRC) clash in Camden.

The thrilling one-point win keeps City’s finals hopes alive with next week’s match against the Canberra Vikings set to decide the final playoff spot.

City currently sit fifth on the NRC ladder with 17 competition points, just one-point behind the Vikings in fourth.

Brisbane City Head Coach Mick Heenan praised his side’s resilience to come-from-behind and close-out the match against NSW Country.

“To an extent we’re disappointed we weren’t able to take more of the opportunities today, but all we needed to do was win and we did that, so now we move forward,” said Heenan.

“We were creating opportunities from the start of the game, but we only managed to take a small percentage of them and thankfully when it mattered we were able to convert.

“Next week is affectively a semi-final for us. You know it’s great to still be alive in the competition. 

“The last couple of weeks we’ve had contrasting games – I thought we controlled the game very well last week against Queensland Country, but this week we just had to find a way. Even when we were down 13 points with 10-to-go we toughed it out and found a way to win, so we’ll take some confidence out of that,” Heenan added.

City opened the scoring after just three minutes when JP. Smith delivered a wonderful pass to winger Emori Waqavulagi.

The home-side responded with a 90-metre effort finished off by Alex Newsome, before Jaline Graham scored the Eagles’ second to lead 10-7 on the half-hour mark.

Three minutes later Tautalatasi Tasi sent Matt Gordon over under the posts and Quade Cooper converted, as City took a 14-10 advantage into the break. 

NSW Country came out firing after halftime – scoring two tries, plus a penalty goal in the space of 10 minutes to open-up a 27-14 lead.

Brisbane City were far from finished and hit-back with two of their own.

Pat Morrey kickstarted the comeback when he crashed over from close range in the 68th minute to cut the deficit to six.

Sam Wallis then put on a big right foot step to collect his third try of the season and Cooper made no mistake from in front to steal a one-point lead with seven minutes to go.

It proved a thrilling end to the contest, but the visitors held their nerve to secure a fourth-straight win.  

Brisbane City host the Canberra Vikings at David Wilson Field, Easts Rugby Club in the final round of the regular season next Sunday afternoon at 2:00pm which is set to decide fourth spot and a place in the finals.


NSW Country Eagles 27 (Newsome, Graham, Grant, Gibbon tries. Saifoloi 2 conversions. Saifoloi 1 penalty) defeated by McInnes Wilson Lawyers Brisbane City 28 (Waqavulagi, Gordon, Morrey, Wallis tries. Cooper 4 conversions) at Camden Rugby Park, Camden on October 7 2018.