Brothers' Old Boys' Rugby Club

On the weekend of August 16 & 17 four Brothers teams contested grand finals. Three teams were successful (1st Division 1st, 2nd and 4th grades). Unfortunately the Premier Grade side went down by a point to Easts.

Brendan McKibbin has been added to the Queensland squad for the tour of Ireland and France. He joins James Harvey and Andrew Shaw as Brothers' players on the tour.

Congratulations to James Harvey and Andrew Shaw on their selection in the squad for the Queensland tour to Ireland and France.

The tour departs Brisbane on August 19th and includes matches against Ulster, Connacht, Leinster and Nice.

Brothers premier grade team defeated title favourites Sunnybank at Ballymore on Sunday to move through to the Grand Final. Their opponents in the decider will be Easts, who comprehensively defeated Brothers in the major semi final the previous weekend 32 - 16. However Brothers turned their form around for a memorable preliminary final victory.

Brothers started the game well and appeared committed. They pressured Sunnybank and forced some errors from their opponents. Brothers scored the first try of the game when hooker Adam Bennie intercepted a ball in his own half. He managed to feed the ball on to support players and a break was made down the edge of the field. With the cover closing Brothers moved the ball back inside and Adam Bennie was on hand again to drive forward. From the ensuring ruck half back Brendan McKibbin went to a wide blind side and found five eighth Dallan Murphy is support to score the points. Brendan McKibbin was successful with the conversion to give Brothers the lead. Soon after McKibbin was again involved in the action. A kick and regather in his own territory saw Brothers on the attack. With several support players to choose from the ball was fed to winger Anthony Sauer who ran away for the try out wide. The conversion was a lovely kick from the sideline by McKibbin. Brothers third try cam after a period of sustained pressure in Sunnybank territory. Good patience and composure were displayed as Brothers retained possession and finally flanker David Croft found the necessary space for the try. With Brendan McKibbin down injured Adam Bennie took the conversion but was unsuccessful. At this stage Brothers had established a handy 19 - 0 lead.

Sunnybank however came back strongly. They put Brothers under pressure at their own end of the field as Brothers gave away free kicks and penalties. With a warning issued from the referee it was unfortunately Anthony Sauer who was the next to offend at a ruck near the half way line. This earned him 10 minutes in the sin bin. Down a man the Brothers defence was exposed and Sunnybank scored their first try of the game. Fullback Damon Murphy made a late tackle after the try was scored and also received his marching orders for a 10 minutes break leaving just 13 men on the field. Sunnybank took full advantage and piled on more tries against the stretched Brothers defence either side of the half time break. With the addition of a penalty goal they moved out to an eight point lead early in the second half with a 27 - 19 point score line.

The game changed again as Brothers returned to full strength. Firstly after a period of attacking pressure Brendan McKibbin slotted a penalty to reduce the margin to under 7 points. A further attacking raid from Brothers saw the ball move along the backline and Anthony Sauer showed some good finishing skills to force his way over in the corner. Another fine conversion from the sideline by McKibbin put Brothers two points ahead with about 15 minutes left on the clock.

Brothers 36 (Tries: David Croft, Dallan Murphy(2), Anthony Sauer(2);Conversions: Brendan McKibbon(4);Penalty Goals: Brendan McKibbon) d Sunnybank 27

John Druery