Who topped the points and try-scoring charts in this year’s NRC?

He can still remember the day. Heading to Coffs Harbour Stadium with his Dad because the touring British & Irish Lions, a side containing most of the Northern Hemisphere’s finest talent at that time – think Jason Leonard, Ronan O’Gara, Neil Jenkins, Ben Cohen and more – had come to town. But for a 10-year-old Sam Needs, it was the guys in the other jerseys that captured his imagination.

He kept me waiting. Unintentionally of course, Brad Thorn is classier than that. But as his talented young Queensland Country side made their way across TG Millner Field to enjoy the post-match celebrations in the sheds last Saturday afternoon, their fledgling head coach was busying himself by carrying the tape bin they had just filled, all the way around to the back of the main stand to save the home groundsman a job.

If you’d told the Greater Sydney Rams coaching team before kick-off that they would go down by the same scoreline and in much the same manner against Queensland Country as they had done against the Fijian Drua the previous weekend, you’d have come away with some pretty sore ears. But alas, that was their fate again, after competing well for large parts of this clash only to undo a lot of their good work with sloppy play, missed tackles and turnovers.

Still smarting over their humbling at the hands of the Canberra Vikings last weekend, the Fijian Drua arrived at TG Millner Field in Sydney keen to get straight back on the winner’s rostrum and kickstart their run to the finals. Up against them was a Greater Sydney Rams side also keen to get back into the winning habit after losing their last run-out two weeks before to Melbourne Rising. Their cause wasn’t helped by the absence of several key players, most notably Waratahs Jed Holloway, Taqele Naiyaravoro and Mack Mason.

The Fijian Drua rubber-stamped their finals credentials with an impressive 57-31 win over Greater Sydney Rams at TG Millner Field last Saturday. Stung by the heavy loss in Canberra the week before, the visitors simply blew away a game that was in the balance at 31-all as it entered the final quarter, crossing four times without reply to cement their place in the top four, and get their hands on the Horan-Little Shield for the first time in the process.

With both sides going into this clash with one win and two losses to their name, another defeat would leave an uphill path to the finals, and it was last year’s runners-up NSW Country Eagles, who eventually downed the Sydney Rays 26-17 in an unconvincing but much-needed victory in Goulburn.