BY GREG DAVIS

The Stara Easts Tigers are 80 minutes away from a berth in the 2025 StoreLocal Hospital Cup
grand final after roaring into the major semi-final with a rollicking rollercoaster ride that
finished with a 50-31 rout of GPS at Yoku Road.

The Tigers will now take on Brothers in the major semi-final at Sunnybank this Sunday with
the winner earning a direct ticket to the Hospital Cup’s big dance at Ballymore on 31 August.
Wests and Bond will face-off in the sudden-death minor semi-final – a fixture that Easts
were staring down the barrel of after a sluggish start in the Round 18 clash with the
Gallopers.

The equation for the Tigers was simple heading into the match-up with GPS. Win and they
were into the major semi-final with a second-placed finish on the ladder. Lose and they
would have to go the long way home in the finals via the sudden-death showdown as they
would tumble to third on the standings.

It did not start well when powerhouse no.8 Nuku Swerling was ruled out of the match after
having a hamstring issue in the warm-up.

And it got worse. After 27 minutes of action, GPS led 24-0 with a howling wind at their
backs.

All the momentum was with the home side who piled on three rapid fire tries to put the
Tigers well and truly on the back foot.

Things looked grim for the men in blue and gold but – significantly – they clawed their way
back into the match with grinding, no-frills tries to lock Charlie Scott and tireless openside
flanker Alex Smit to reduce the margin to 24-12 at halftime.

Whatever head coach Simon Craig said to his troops at the break should be bottled.
The Tigers turned the match on its head after the resumption of play, relentlessly reeling off
five unanswered tries to blow GPS off the park and book their place in the major semi-final.
With the breeze behind them, Easts set-up camp inside Gallopers territory and made it
count.

Crafty fullback Meli Dreu crossed after a blindside raid to get the ball rolling then George
Stoddart – who replaced Swerling at the back of the scrum – charged on to a lovely short
ball from JP Tominiko to crash over near the posts to level the scores.

The Tigers hit the front for the first time in the match in the 60 th minute when veteran
hooker Andrew Ready scored from a rolling maul and Easts maintained the rage when
winger BJ Oates found space after a deft ball from Dreu and used his pace and clever
footwork to cross in the corner.

Returning blindside flanker Tau Tuisamoa barged his way over after sustained pressure from
Easts to open up a 43-24 buffer for the visitors but GPS scored a late try to reduce the
margin to less than two converted tries.

However, Dreu claimed his second five-pointer of the day after a turnover from the
desperate Gallopers to help the Tigers reach the most unlikely of half centuries as they
claimed their 13 th win from 16 outings in the 2025 regular season and second-place on the
Hospital Cup ladder at the end of the home-and-away season.