In the last round of the Wagners Risdon Cup the Toowoomba Bears hosted the Roma Echidnas at Heritage Oval, where both teams were looking to finish their seasons on a high note after missing out on finals. The Bears came out firing and were playing a great style of attacking rugby as they opened their scoring through inside centre George Andreas. To Roma’s credit they competed hard and proved to cause headaches in the Bears’ defensive line at times. Unfortunately for the Echidnas they couldn’t crack the line as Bears celebrated a 41-0 win after a few tough weeks.
The undefeated Goondiwindi Emus travelled in to take on the Rangers on Rangers Old Boy’s Day at Gold Park. The Goondiwindi boys were determined to go the whole season without a loss. The Emus had a scare in the opening 10 minutes with outside centre Harry Hawker given a red card, making the Emus play nearly a whole game with just 14 players. Unfortunately for the Toowoomba Rangers they weren’t able to capitalise on the overlap and found themselves getting cut apart by the Emus as they ran in eight tries to one over Rangers to make the score 50 to 7.
Gatton hosted Highfields down the range and were prepared for a big game as they hosted their Ladies Day and looked to finish the season on a high. And that they did, as they ran in 13 tries to Highfields’ one. Gatton fullback Todd Daniels continued his outstanding form as he scored four tries himself to make the score 90-7 in favour of Gatton.
In a third and fifth place play off the Condamine Cods travelled in to take on the USQ Saints. The game was a physical battle, while both teams played entertaining brands of running rugby. Another strong performance from Cods’ prop James Guest saw him rewarded, finding himself over the try line, while opposition prop James Gough wanted to match him scoring a try of his own. These two props provided their teams with big hits and damaging ball carries. The game looked to be over as USQ had the lead with just under a minute left. Unfortunately for them the Cods’ never say die attitude was in full swing as they snatched the victory from USQ after the siren to make the score 27-24 at USQ Rugby Oval.
