THE Queensland Outback Barbarians have notched up their second win of the 2018 US tour, beating Houston 72-13.
In a physical encounter that was not reflected in the runaway scoreline, the Outback Barbarians proved just too dominant under lights on the synthetic surface at the British International School.
The Queenslanders opened the scoring after about 10 minutes of concentrated play between the forwards when centre Adam Conway grabbed the ball and weaved his way through the Houston side.
However, Houston hit back on the back of some impressive, tightly controlled play to advance the ball up field and level the scores.
Then winger Dudley Miles took control in a brilliant individual effort making a 60m run and beating at least six defenders to cross the try line.
A total of 10 changes at half time gave the Outback Barbarians the edge. While the home team did manage a skillful intercept later in the second period, the power and speed of the visitors proved too much on the night.
Flanker Ellis Jensen put in a man of the match performance, despite being sin binned early for ‘overly ferocious’ play. Other stand outs in the forwards included Luke Wolter, Jasper Brigden, Nick Ein, Tim McClymont and Alaistair Costello.
Coach Mick Bishop said the Houston match was excellent preparation for New Orleans in only three days time.
“We were at least 50 per cent better than against Dallas,” Bishop said.
“Most of the players are getting plenty of game time and we’ve seeing a lot of good structure develop around the ruck.
“Regardless of the scoreline, Houston provided a really good game that provided plenty of challenges.
“We don’t know really what to expect down in Louisiana but it is certainly likely to be tough and hard.”
Outback Barbarians 72 (Colby Mason, Adam Conway, Dudley Miles, Ethan Hoffman, Damon Hesp, Jai Blakey, Andrew Kennedy, and Sam Schmidt tries) d Houston 13.