The woeful season that is 2011 continued for the Brumbies after they failed to hold onto a half-time lead, leaking 28 unanswered second half points to go down 16–34 to the Sharks in Durban overnight.
The visitors came to Durban aiming to atone for their disastrous start against the Cheetahs in the last game. At first it appeared this had been addressed with far more intensity in their play on show in the opening exchanges.
The Brumbies aimed to take the game to the Sharks through the forwards and were perhaps guilty of over-enthusiasm, with referee Mark Lawrence penalising them twice in the first five minutes while they in possession. Lawrence was cracking down on both teams and gave the Brumbies a penalty for offside, which flyhalf Matt Giteau converted from 40 metres out and considering the swirling wind, it was a good kick. It must also be noted that Giteau’s new hairdo was also sporting swirly patterns to it – or Blind Freddy had been at it.
They continued their forward oriented attack though a series of pick and drives and were rewarded with another penalty inside the Sharks’ 22. Giteau stretched the lead to 6.
The Sharks then tried to get themselves back into the game and were also guilty of over-enthusiasm with wasted chances when on attack. The worst example of this was a blown four-man overlap that let the Brumbies off the hook.
Knowing the Stormers had lost earlier in the day, the Sharks showed their hand by declining penalty shots at goal and pushing for a bonus point win, but this plan backfired after 20 minutes when a lineout went awry. The Brumbies managed to go 95 metres the other way and score their only try of the match.
It would be fair to say there was a stroke of luck in the lead-up to the try. A Patrick Phibbs clearing kick was touched by a Shark, which allowed winger Andrew Smith to collect the ball and link up in midfield with Christian Lealiifano, who ran 50 metres to score. At this point the Brumbies were up 13-0 and the home fans were starting to wonder what was going on.
The Sharks then started to gain some composure and knew that penalty goals would get them back into the game. Before long Patrick Lambie had kicked two, reducing the deficit to 7.
The only other score for the half was another Giteau penalty goal after Sharks hooker Bismarck du Plessis stupidly lashed out and made contact with a Brumbies player right under the nose of the assistant referee. This gave the Brumbies a 10-point lead at oranges.
Whatever was said by Sharks coach John Plumtree at half time must have worked as his team started off the half with a try to winger JP Pietersen. With Lambie’s conversion the Sharks trailed by just 3 points and were right back in the game.
The Sharks then started to starve the Brumbies of possession and were frustrating them into simple errors. The Brumbies survived one scare but from the resulting scrum lost a tight head, and after two phases Shark lock Steven Sykes dived over in the corner to put his side in front for the first time. Lambie followed up that good work with an excellent conversion from the sideline. It looked like the tide had turned in favour of the home team at this point.
It took another 12 minutes for the Sharks to score again, this time through replacement Adrian Jacobs with his second touch of the ball. The defence was stretched as the Brumbies tried to chance their arm with players out of position, and there was little Tyrone Smith could do as Jacobs ran away to the line untouched.
The Sharks were sniffing for a fourth try bonus point, but JP Piestersen had a few moments he would rather forget. First he dropped the ball cold with the line in sight and no defender within five metres. Two minutes later he had a kick charged down that could have erased his good work in scoring a try earlier.
Eventually the Sharks’ good work was rewarded two minutes from full time when replacement forward Anton Bresler, who was sporting a sensational mullet, secured the try they needed to send their fans home happy — and the Brumbies home with no competition points from their South African tour.
The Brumbies are heading home to take on the Lions, with only a short recovery period ahead this week. They can’t take the Lions lightly despite their lowly position on the table.
Sharks 34 Pietersen, Sykes, Jacobs, Bresler tries; Lambie 4 cons, 2 pens def. Brumbies 16 Lealiifano try; Giteau con, 3 pens
Wallaby Watch:
Put his hand up: Stephen Moore – A solid effort around the park and got through a mountain of work in defence.
Did himself no favours: Mark Chisholm – Suffered a case of the ‘dropsies’ at a crucial time, appears to have lost some of the mongrel that got him into the Wallabies in the first place and was replaced on 50 minutes.
Bolter Watch: A close match between Christian Lealiifano and Peter Kimlin; since Kimlin got the nod from me last week, Lealiifano gets it this week after scoring the only Brumbies try. He seemed right at home at inside centre — and he also claimed the official man of the match honours, which was a great feat considering the scoreline.
