The Brumbies handily beat an ordinary Force outfit in Perth tonight.
The Match
It was all about the Brumbies clinical first twenty minutes of the game, when they stuck three tries on the Force and effectively put the game out of reach.
All three Brumbies tries were actually pretty similar to each other. They went through the phases, hitting and bending the line with each phase, showing accuracy and urgency at the breakdown. Their constant quick recycling of the ball and good service from the ruck base had the Force defence back pedalling and once the inevitable mismatches were created, we saw three different players go over out wide. It was actually good footy to watch, because it showed how effective ruthlessly efficient execution of the fundamentals of the game can be. It seemed like the Force were powerless to stop the Brumbies juggernaut at times and frankly a cricket score looked imminent after the first quarter of the game.
I’d love to see the possession and territory stats from the first half, because it seemed that the Force could neither get their hands on the pill or get out of their twenty-two. It could have been four first half tries they’d conceded, had a Brumbies rolling maul not been ruled as a “truck and trailer”. I don’t recall too many periods of sustained phase play or many line breaks from the home team in the opening stanza, because the Brumbies just seemed to be all over them.
The second half, it has to be said, degenerated a bit into a litany of handling errors and penalties at the breakdown. The Force lifted their game in defence and did front up to a greater degree, but also the Brumbies sharp edge that had been so noticeable in the first half dropped off significantly. This can often be the case in games that are effectively over at half time and this one certainly was. Even though the home side had considerably more ball than they enjoyed in the first half, they still struggled to do much of any consequence with it. The phase play looked disjointed and hesitant and there was a noticeable lack of trailing runners on the rare occasions when a half break was made.
By contrast, the Brumbies generally accelerated into contact with purpose and looked to dominate the collision, which they often did. This is why they created so much front foot ball and therefore the three tries. Their passing was often of a high standard and five-eighth Matt Toomua did a good job of steering the team around the park. In fairness to the Force, the substitutions made in the second half when Ebersohn and Hayward entered the fray gave their attack a more polished look and certainly created a lot more opportunities than had taken place before. The support play in depth that had been missing did appear to a greater degree later on in the game and led to a couple of tries. By then it was too late of course and the game had become pretty sloppy and unstructured.
The conditions wouldn’t have helped, given how hot it had been in Perth today and even with sea breeze when play started it was still pretty warm. Several players looked to be struggling with cramp late on and I have no doubt this contributed to the drop in standard.
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The Game Changer
The opening whistle! The Brumbies came out of the gate full of purpose and just imposed their brand of footy on the game. It wasn’t flashy but it was highly effective.
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The G&GR MotM
A hard one, but I thought Scott Fardy and Sam Carter were influential, as well as Henry Speight on the wing, who had a good battle with Nick Cummins.
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Wallaby watch
The one guy we all had our eyes on tonight was David Pocock and he threw a late scare into into us all with what looked like a knee injury. A post match interview revealed that it as more precautionary than anything else. He still looked the goods for mine and his battle with Hooper for the Wallaby jersey later this year will be fantastic.
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The Details
Brumbies: 27 (Fardy, Mogg, Coleman tries; White 3 cons; White 2 pens) defeated Force: 14 (Hayward, McCalman tries; Ebersohn 2 cons)
Yellow cards: Jesse Mogg
Refereee: Nick Briant
