‘Tongan Thor’ Taniela Tupou stars as Brothers win semi-final ^Featured

The Brethren surged into their first Premier Rugby grand final since 2012 with a mighty 18-10 upset of hot favourites Uni in Brisbane’s major semi-final at Ballymore.

Tupou’s giant legs buzzed like some oversized Sonic the Hedgehog running amok in a video game when he skittled two Uni defenders at the 20-minute mark to inspire the Brethren to greater deeds.

His try levelled the scores at 10-all but it was a shot of confidence that lasted for the next hour.

“Taniela gave us huge momentum with that try and he just lifts the team because whenever he runs he gives us front-foot ball,” Brothers captain Nathanuel Gendle said.

“When you can run like he does, he has a license to bob up wherever he likes.”

That was all part of the clever Brothers plan because never before has a 134kg prop been assigned to drop back like a winger to catch the Uni clearing kicks that were anticipated.

On other occasions, he grabbed tapped ball as a halfback from lineouts and ploughed forward like George Gregan on steroids.

Brothers had other heroes with flyhalf Stefano Hunt prominent, swarming defence keeping Uni tryless for 69 minutes and winger George Partridge crossing for the clinching try after 70 minutes.

Uni must regroup for Sunday’s preliminary final against a confident Sunnybank, who toppled premiers Souths 37-34 in a pulsating minor semi-final.
Brothers prop Taniela Tupou caused havoc against Uni on Sunday.

Lirewire Sunnybank halfback Issak Fines-Leleiwasa was the game-breaker for the Dragons and showed a sniping speed that has never been obvious in the understudies to Nick Frisby at the Reds.

“Izzy” made a trademark diagonal dart from the ruckbase for his own try and had three neat passing touches in the Jason Beeton try that gave the Dragons their important 24-10 jump at half-time.

When the Dragons were scrambling on the back foot in the second half after giving up two tries while Beeton was in the sinbin, it was “Izzy” who turned the tide with the subtle pass that sent a semi-trailer called Feao Fotuaika to the tryline.

He also milked a yellow card with the quick taps into off-side prop Paulo Leleisiuao that reduced Souths to 14-men in the final stages.

“Izzy was big part of our best 40 minutes of the season in the first half which really set us up,” Sunnybank coach Rod Seib said.

The match was still there for 14-man Souths to win at 34-all with 12 minutes to play, especially after eye-catching No.8 Isi Naisarani veered downfield on a 45m run to ignite the fine equalising try by prop Markus Vanzati.

Naisarani is great raw material for a professional contract while Souths centre Paul Brown threw some pinpoint passes that should embarrass several Reds back with far less accurate long-passing skills.

Teenage flyhalf Jake Strachan calmly potted the game-winning penalty goal in the final minute but not before Sunnybank had oddly refused two close range shots to pack scrums to milk the clock and deny Souths their dynamic attacking knack from re-starts.

Major Semi Final: Brothers 18 (T Tupou, G Partridge tries; M Felsman con, 2 pens) bt University 10 (J Campbell try; T Pincus con, pen)

Minor Semi Final: Sunnybank 37 (F Fotuaika, I Fines-Leleiwasa, J Beeton, J Edmond tries; J Strachan 4 con, 3 pen) bt Souths 34 (M Vanzati, A Mineko, T Tela, K Sefton, S Tela tries; T Tela 3 con, S Malolua pen)

-The Courier-Mail