McInnes Wilson Lawyers Brisbane City lose to NSW Country Eagles in opening round of Buildcorp National Rugby Championship

Aug 29 • General News • 1821 Views • Comments Off on McInnes Wilson Lawyers Brisbane City lose to NSW Country Eagles in opening round of Buildcorp National Rugby Championship

McInnes Wilson Lawyers Brisbane City have suffered an opening round defeat to NSW Country Eagles 22-12 in Sydney on Saturday afternoon.

Poor discipline and a lack of scoring opportunities hurt the defending champions, who met a spirited Eagles outfit at Sydney University in warm conditions.

The Eagles’ tries were scored by Ned Hannigan, Alex Newsome and Sam Needs. Flyhalf Andrew Deegan kicked two conversions. City’s tries were scored by Jake Strachan and Luke Beauchamp.

City head coach Rod Seib wasn’t happy with the performance, but said his side showed defensive grit to stay in the fight throughout the match.

“You could tell it was the first game, we really couldn’t get any continuity happening, but in saying that I thought we defended well at times when we were under a lot of pressure due to the yellow cards,” he said.

“There were a few times the game could have got away from us but we salvaged something with our defence on our line. That kept us in the game.

“We created some opportunities but just couldn’t make the most of them. We’ll certainly be better the more time we have together.”

City’s discipline cost them in the first half, with yellow cards to hooker Andrew Ready and lock Lukhan Tui meaning they spent much of the opening stanza short handed.

The Eagles took immediate advantage of the first yellow card when Ready was penalised for not rolling away.

The home side kicked to touch five metres out from City’s line, set up a rolling maul and young lock Hannigan crashed over for the first try. Deegan converted the try for an early 8-0 lead.

City had limited opportunities on attack in the first half, but made the most of one of their only passages of play in the Eagles’ half, with 19-year-old debutant flyhalf Strachan throwing a dummy pass before backing himself to score his team’s only points of the first half.

Considering how little opportunity they had in the first half, the visitors would have been happy to enter the break with just a two-point deficit, but a late intercept try to Eagles winger Alex Newsome pushed the score out to 10 points, 16-6.

City could not have asked for a worse start to the second half as they conceded another try almost immediately when Eagles’ prop Needs scored from a pick and go following a long run downfield from Hannigan. Deegan missed the conversion, but City trailed 22-6 early on.

The visitors struck back in the 51st minute, with tireless flanker Beauchamp scoring off the back of some hard running from winger Alex Gibbon, who took his side deep into enemy territory to set up the try.

Both sides appeared to tire as the game went on, with neither able to score in the final stages of their first match of the year.

Brisbane City will look to bounce back next week with their first home game of the 2016 season, hosting the Western Sydney Rams at Ballymore Stadium next Saturday 3 September. Tickets are available atwww.redsrugby.com.au.

McInnes Wilson Lawyers Brisbane City 12 (Jake Strachan, Luke Beauchamp tries) defeated by NSW Country Eagles 22 (Ned Hannigan, Alex Newsome, Sam Needs tries; Andrew Deegan 2 conversions)at Sydney University on Saturday 27 August, 2016.