sport
Broadbeach Bulls Prop Fuels Gold Coast Rugby Revival After Wallabies Clash
A local forward's breakout performances have put the Broadbeach Bulls at the centre of national rugby talk this week.
How we reported this
Broadbeach Bulls loosehead prop Liam Torres earned a starting berth for Queensland’s under-23 side after his club side posted back-to-back wins in the Queensland Premier Rugby competition last weekend.
The timing aligns with the Wallabies’ heavy loss to France on 11 July, which left selectors searching for fresh front-row options ahead of the 2027 Rugby World Cup cycle. Torres, who grew up two streets from the club’s Mermaid Beach headquarters, has been clocking 45-minute shifts at training while balancing shifts at a Surfers Paradise café.
Local roots at two Gold Coast venues
Every Tuesday and Thursday the Bulls run drills on the floodlit fields behind the Gold Coast Hockey Centre in Labrador. On weekends the team returns to the main oval at Bond University in Robina for match-day warm-ups. Both sites sit within a 15-minute drive of each other along the Gold Coast Highway, giving Torres and his teammates easy access without leaving the city.
The club’s junior program, run in partnership with the Gold Coast Rugby Union, now lists 312 registered players aged 6 to 18, up from 241 in 2024. That growth has been helped by a $180,000 grant from the City of Gold Coast that paid for new scrum machines delivered in March.
Numbers behind the surge
Broadbeach has won six of its last eight fixtures, scoring 28 tries in the process. Average home attendance at Robina has climbed to 1,850, with adult tickets priced at $28 and juniors entering free. The next home game is scheduled for 19 July against Sunnybank at the same venue, with gates opening at 4:30 pm.
Club officials have opened an extra registration window that closes 18 July for anyone wanting to trial before the finals series. Details are posted on the Bulls website and at the Labrador training base.