Brahmans need to play for pride

PRIDE is what the Brahmans need to play for when they face Sunshine Coast at Rugby Park today.

Throughout the program coach Jack Lloyd has been forced to experiment with youngsters and players who might not have been in his original plans.

In a tough campaign injuries too have taken their toll on star players making today’s line-up look like a second string. Nevertheless a job still has to be done and it is still a game of 15 players a-side.

Lloyd was very happy at the way Mathew Brown answered the call for last weekend’s match against the Gold Coast. The young winger was drafted into the line-up and played so well he was one of the first to be pencilled in for a starting position this week.

A positive for rugby union in the region is that the Brahmans is now truly a Central Queensland team with Blackwater players standing up and performing for the representative squad.

With no Fraser Booth, Jono Bradbury, Brad Reeves or Brad Howland to call on this will be a very stern test for a Brahmans team that has not won a game in the 2010 Country Championship.

Kick off at Rugby Park is 3.30pm

The Young Brahmans play in the curtain-raiser against the Sunshine Coast under-19 team. That game has a 2pm kick-off.

BRAHMANS

1. Tom Hale

2. Keith Taylor

3. John Galvin

4. Stuart Whyte

5. Scott McPherson (vc)

6. Ryan Brownlie

7. Royce Beitzel

8. Anthony Pearce

9. Martin Thompson 10. Mathew Page

11. Mathew Brown

12. Sam Jones (c)

13. Oliver Mayo

14. Darrin Gibson

15. Mitch Smith

16. Riki Matheson

17. John Ford

18. Rob Wood

19. Nickolas Hickey 20. Aaron Longbottom 21. Zac Moss

22. Allan Hannah

23. TBC.

Coach: Jack Lloyd. Assistant Coach: Frank Busby. Manager: Len Lawlor.