Souths Rugby Union Club (Queensland Premier Rugby)
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Thursday June 13, 2013 Souths celebrate their history as they chase the top four The long standing and rich history between Souths and Easts will be on show this Saturday when the two adversaries do battle at Chipsy Wood Oval in Queensland Rugby’s fifth Heritage Round of 2013. The Magpies will be hoping the prestige of the Heritage Round will be enough to reverse the result of an earlier season loss when Easts clawed their way back in the dying stages to win by one point, 20-19. It’s also an important game in terms of ladder position with the Tigers recent run of form putting them in second place while Souths are only marginally outside of a finals spot and sit just one point behind University in fourth-place. It will be a special occasion for Souths as they celebrate the rich history of their club. Southern Districts Rugby Union Football Club was established in 1948 from an amalgamation of three clubs including the Y.M.C.A Club, West End, and the Commonwealth Bank. The club is currently based at Chipsy Wood Oval, named after one of the driving forces behind the club in its early years, Secretary Chipsy Wood, a tax official who had played prop for YMCA. Since Souths’ introduction into the Brisbane Club Rugby scene, the Magpies have won nine of the 15 Premier Rugby Grand Finals they have contested. Their first premiership came in 1958 but it wasn’t until 1986 that the club won again. This began a golden era, with Souths contesting the Grand Final in 1986 (won), 1987 (lost), 1988 (lost), 1989 (lost), 1991 (won), 1992 (won), 1993 (won), 1994 (won), 1995 (won), 1996 (lost), 1997 (lost), 1998 (won), 2000 (won) and their most recent Grand Final appearance was in 2009 where they lost to Brothers. During this period the Magpies claimed the Welsby Cup on six occasions, the Doughty Shield seven times and The Caxton Cup once. They were also crowned Australian Club Champions in 1987. Souths player Brian Ford still holds the title for the youngest player to ever play for the Wallabies, while in 1992 Souths had the highest representation from any one club in the Wallabies with seven Magpies selected at the one time. The “Magnificent Seven” as they were known included Tim Horan, Jason Little, Dan Crowley, Tom Lawton, Sam Scott-Young, Garrick Morgan and Troy Coker. In total, Souths have had 31 players represent the Wallabies, with their latest representatives including Quade Cooper and Beau Robinson. Other Souths greats include legendary scrum coach Alec Evans, current Queensland Rugby Vice-President Andrew Slack, Wallaby and Queensland great Toutai Kefu, and one of Souths earliest Wallabies, former Australian Captain Neville Cottrell. Sam Denny is the latest of Souths’ 81 Queensland Representatives to make his provincial debut, earning his first cap last weekend against The British & Irish Lions. So far this season, Souths have strung together some great performances to win six of their 10 matches but have also suffered a number of lapses which have cost them valuable competition points. They’ve proven to have the capacity to score tries, having earned six four-try bonus points, and now sit in fifth place on 31 competition points, just one point adrift of the top four behind University on 32. Souths’ outside backs have proven to be dangerous so far in 2013, with 2012 top try scorer Dominic Lespierre once again high up on the overall tally with five tries. Young fullback Andrew Muirhead has proven to be competition for Lespeirre scoring eight tries so far, leaving him placed third overall. Inside centre Mafi Kefu, younger brother of Steve and Toutai, has been a damaging force for the Magpies but has also missed a fair amount of Rugby through injury woes. Kefu has been named in the starting line-up for this weekend and will play outside flyhalf Isaac Thompson who has moved between 10 and 12 in Kefu’s absence. Souths Coach Michael Broad is looking forward to the match on Saturday and is adamant that Kefu will have a significant impact on the game. “Mafi has had a bit of time in second and first grade the last few weeks just to see whether or not his knee was responding to treatment, it’s a bit of week-to-week with Maf,” said Broad. “He has helped us lift in a few games this year and there is no doubt the experience he brings to the team will help us on the weekend, we’re happy to have him back.” With the Heritage Round this weekend, Broad also commented on the culture of Souths and the effort the coaching staff are putting in to instilling a sense of history amongst the current playing group. “We’ve started to work a lot on the culture of the club within our squad, working towards the kind of culture we what to instil over the next few years,” Broad said. “We went away to the Gold Coast in the pre-season, and we spoke about culture and Maf(Kefu) spoke about what Souths means to his family, going back to when the Tongan community became a part of Souths culture. “Its import for these young players to know their past and part of what we’ve been doing is having Souths old boys come down and present jerseys at home games. “We’ve had Maf & Steve’s dad come down and present, as well as Alec Evans and this weekend we have Tyron Mandrusiak coming down.” Souths will have a strong challenge ahead of them this week as Easts will be bolstered by the return of Queensland Reds and Combined Country representatives Blake Enever and Jarrad Butler, who will be coming into the match after taking on The British & Irish Lions in Newcastle. The two players will bring a wealth of experience into the forward pack while in the backs, Reds flyer Aidan Toua will prove dangerous in his combination with the two Cox brothers Sam and Sean, as well as flyhalf Matt Brandon. Broad see’s it fitting that the two sides face off against each other in the Heritage Round clash, but knows what the Tigers are capable of, stating that the first time they played this year, Souths had the better of Easts for the first 60 minutes but for the last 20 they fell away from what they were doing well and he gave credit to Easts for managing to swing the momentum in their favour. “We went away from what we did well in the final 20 minutes the first time we played, and Easts being the great side they are managed to turn the game and pick up the win.” “Easts and Souths have always been generous in supporting each other on big occasions, I think it’s fitting that we are playing each other on such an occasion. “I usually give our players a list a key players from the opposition side but I’ve decided not to do that this week as I would have to list the whole team. “They are consistent from one to 15, they all have their jobs and they do them well.” Souths Rugby Union Football Club Queensland Representatives TN Betts, N Cottrell, A Livermore, W McGovern, K Betts, A Morcombe, H Southgate, J Nickles, R Cooper, R Rex, B Ford, G McLean, R Cory, T Latukefu, A Russman, A Evans, D Worner, W Kiernan, T Caroline, G Woods, M Baker, R Priebe, D Watts, I Thomas, I Kennedy, J Hoyland, G Moloney, A Slack, S Mafi, D McIvor, T Lawton, R Lawton, D Codey, D Crowley, A Knox, S Tait, D Cooper, R Tombs, K Wills, J Little, F Perrin, T Horan, G Morgan, S Scott-Young, B Free, M Foley, I Williams, T Coker, B Johnstone, A Skeggs, D Smith, B Robinson, G Hislop, D Emtage, M Connors, B Cannon, G Brown, B Lea, A Blades, T Boston, T Kefu, T Mandrusiak, G Vassallo, S Drahm, D McInally, T Lough, S Kefu, V Humprhies, B Condon, J Valentine, L Doherty, C Northcott, B Coutts, Q Cooper, C Fetoai, AJ Gilbert, S Faingaa, A Faingaa, J Kennedy, B Robinson, S Denny Australian Representatives TN Betts, N Cottrell*, B Ford, G McLean, A Evans, A Slack*, T Lawton, D Codey*, R Lawton, R Tombs, D Crowley, J Little*, T Horan*, S Scott-Young, G J Morgan, T Coker, D Smith, B A Johnston, BP Lea, A Skeggs, B Robinson, M Foley, T Kefu, T Mandrusiak (Australian Sevens), M Connors, S Kefu, Q Cooper, S Faingaa, A Faingaa, V Humphries, B Robinson (*) Represents Captaincy Australian Women Representatives B Calvert, A Fairweather, K Beitzel, S Williams, S Worsley, L Dwan, P Palaiali'I, B Hart
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