The CA Brumbies rolled the dice and came up winners in their Australian derby against the Queensland Reds. It was a match they needed to win to keep alive their finals dream and they did so in convincing style with a 32-12 victory and secure a bonus point in front of a vocal Canberra crowd.
The home team dominated the early exchanges and starved the visitors of possession and at one stage enjoyed 71% of the ball. They finally put on a display that would put come confidence back in the fans that saw less kicking and a more adventurous style that had not been seen for some time.
The Reds suffered two injuries in the opening 20 minutes that saw both starting locks, Adam Byrnes and Rob Simmons, leave the field with serious injuries that required a major re-shuffle amongst the Reds pack. Sensing that this would cause problems, the Brumbies took advantage of the scrums and were rewarded with the opening try to ‘Big’ Mark Chisholm after a series of scrums on the Reds line. This was followed up shortly after by another try to the Brumbies leading try scorer of 2010, Ben Alexander, who is causing concern amongst the front rowers union with his try scoring feats.
Some uncharacteristic mistakes started to creep into the Reds game with Quade Cooper wasting a perfect opportunity for field position by kicking the ball touch in goal from a penalty. He did keep the Reds in the game with 2 penalty goals in the first half. To their credit the Reds tried to play their natural game and were unlucky to not to have scored themselves after Captain Will Genia was taken out off the ball at the back of the ruck near the line.
Despite their under powered scrum and lineout, the Reds continued to take the game to the Brumbies and with 2 more penalty goals to Cooper, the visitors were within 2 points just after half time. Poor discipline by the Brumbies in the second half this year has been a problem and the Reds were biding their time and would have been happy to keep progressing their score in three’s.
Unfortunately for the Reds, that was the end of their scoring for the night as the Brumbies continued to mount pressure on their scrum. A try to Josh Valentine gave the Brumbies some breathing space as they chased a fourth try bonus point for only the second time this season. It looked like there could be a repeat of past efforts after Adam Ashley-Cooper put down a pass near the line after excellent play from Rocky Elsom in the lead up. The crowd were rewarded for the patience when prop Ben Alexander crashed over for his second of the night with 7 minutes remaining to finally secure the bonus point.
The only question for the fans is where has this style of play been all season after weeks of promises. It could be a stroke of luck for the Brumbies that they find themselves in the position they are after other results went in their favour and sees them finish the round in 6th position and in a logjam for a finals place with at least 4 other teams.
Both captain Stephen Hoiles and coach Andy Friend were pleased with how the team responded after the events of the week leading up to the match but acknowledge they can not get carried away with the result and must continue to play positively if they are to make the finals.
The Brumbies take on the Otago Highlanders next week which will be the home farewell for both Stirling Mortlock and George Smith.
Wallaby Watch:
Put his hand up: Matt Giteau – Put a week of adversity behind him with excellent kicking and directing of an inexperience backline.
Did himself no favours: Stephen Moore – Harsh decision but only because he had more turn overs than any other Brumbies player.
Bolter Watch: Pat McCabe – Doesn’t do much, if anything, wrong and is getting better with each appearance.
