8 January 2007
by Graham Croker
Sydney University rugby union winger Nathan Trist has been logging up plenty of frequent-flyer points since being selected in the Australian side to compete in the International Rugby Board World Series.
Trist’s first port of call was Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where Australia caused a boilover by defeating Fiji 19-14 on the opening day of the 2006-07 series. Australia lost to England (21-5) in the quarter-finals of the Bowl, which is competed for by teams missing out on the quarter-finals in the main draw.
The team then flew to George, on the southern coast of South Africa, for the second round of the series. Played at Outeniqua Stadium, Australia defeated Kenya 41-7 in the Bowl final and in doing so, secured two competition points in the overall standings.
Australia easily progressed to the Bowl final at the expense of Uganda (36-0) and Canada (31-5) in the semi-finals. Coach Glen Ella said the team responded positively after some disappointing Pool matches – which included a loss to Tunisia - and deserved their success against Kenya.
“We had a disappointing start yesterday and had a bit of pride at stake to win this competition and we certainly did that,” Ella said. “Kenya came out early and piled the pressure on us but to our credit we really stuck to our structure and scored some great tries. We've had some trouble with Kenya in the past so it was a relief that we saw them off today and claimed another two points on the table.”
New Zealand avenged their loss to South Africa in the overall final at the Dubai tournament with a 24-19 result in the George final.
Trist can look forward to more flying points, with the series going to Wellington, New Zealand (February 2-3), San Diego (February 10-11), Hong Kong (March 30-31), Adelaide (April 7-8), London (May 26-27) and Edinburgh (June 2-3).