Yesterday the Gold Coast Breakers suffered another heartbreaking defeat to Souths this year going down 31-28. Having suffered the same fate in May with their lead reeled in to lose 24-22 on that Gold Coast afternoon, a Quade Cooper inspired second half at Chipsy Wood insured Souths would repeat that success and overcome their heartbreaking loss to Sunnybank the week before.

After the Breakers ran in three unanswered tries in the first half to lead 15-3 at the break Souths turned to Wallaby Quade Cooper, a rarity to be warming the bench, to conjure some of his magic to pull them from the depths of consecutive losses. And conjure he did. Despite a less than impressive kick-off for the restart, Cooper soon showed the form that has earned him the honour of wearing the Green & Gold number 10 jersey this year after a stellar Super 14 season, throwing long passes to both sides of the field to put Souths’ left and right wingers, Pamu Fou & Wili Tilaguca respectively, in for tries and then a third try himself from a Souths 5m scrum, all of which he deftly converted to slice the deficit to 28-24 with little time on the clock.

The ladies day function was in full swing with shirtless waiters braving the wintery late afternoon while the Magpie faithfully were willing their team to an unlikely victory. Recently elevated to the Wallabies squad, Anthony Faingaa showed his great form with the last play of the match, after Souths stole a Breaker's line-out, off-loaded to left wing, Fou, to score his second five-pointer that put Souths ahead for the first time in the match 29-28. Faingaa was given the honour of converting that try to make the final score 31-28.

As the match day program stated, “Watch Magpies turn into Wallabies”, the Chipsy Wood crowd was treated to photos after the match with the Faingaa twins, Saia and Anthony, along with Quade Cooper. However they were not the only Wallabies to be on the field that afternoon as the Breaker’s front row pairing of Ben Daley and James Slipper also played their part with a dominating first half performance. Recently elevated to the Wallabies front row the two spearheaded the Gold Coast forward pack to one of their best displays this season, unfortunately Daley being replaced at half time slowed momentum leading to their back to back losses.

AROUND THE GROUNDS:
Easts 23 df. Brothers 18
Sunnybank 39 df. Norths 29
Uni 55 df. GPS 32
Sunshine Coast 76 df. Wests 5