The Brumbies have their season back on track with a 23-6 win over the Bulls in Canberra and put and end to the Bulls seven match unbeaten streak.
The Match
The Bulls brought their big scrum and didn’t take long to assert their authority and gain an early penalty to Francois Brummer after three minutes.
That continued throughout the half with Scott Sio having a torrid time against Francis van der Merwe and was penalised often by Ben O’Keefe.
The forward battle was always going to help decide this game and the Brumbies forwards were keen to show they were up to the task with some strong runs, particularly from Jarrad Butler, to give their side some front foot ball and give Tomas Cubelli room to move amongst the big Bulls forwards.
Christian Lealiifano responded for the Brumbies opening points after 15 minutes with a penalty goal and then landed a second only minutes later.
The Brumbies attempted to get around the rushing Bulls defence with some chip kicks that should probably never be seen again with a other kicks for the line from penalties needing a bit of work during the week as the Brumbies wasted some good attacking chances.
Despite that, the home side had the best chance to get the first five pointer but couldn’t get over the line with some strong Bulls defence at times but were ultimately caught offside for Lealiifano to land his third penalty of the half to make it 9-3 which it would remain at the break.
SECOND HALF
The Bulls opened the scoring in the second half but the Brumbies responded straight away with a back line move and Nigel Ah Wong stretched over for the first try of the match. Lealiifano converted to give the Brumbies a 10 point lead.
The Brumbies were starting to get on top of the Bulls as their discipline let them down (to be fair some questionable calls at times) to allow the Brumbies easy field position in their 22 and off the back of another penalty, Cubelli took a quick tap and after a few phases found the line to extend their lead beyond two converted tries.
As the half wore on, the Brumbies backs started to find gaps in the Bulls line but the Bulls defence held on to keep the Brumbies out.
When the Bulls did get their hands on the ball, it was mostly in their own half making tough work for them to get back into the game.
Neither team could add any further points to the scoreboard in the final 20 minutes as the Brumbies ran out 23-6 winners.
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The Game Changer
The first half was fairly tight but the second half was where the Brumbies got on top of the Bulls as their discipline lapsed and Cubelli gave the Brumbies some badly needed breathing space.
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The G&GR MOTM
Tomas Cubelli – Gave the Brumbies some badly needed quick ball to help get the Brumbies ball runners over the advantage line.
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Wallaby Watch
Scott Sio had a tough night at the office. Tevita Kuridrani started to find a bit of form after a queit run in recent games. Stephen Moore made a good comeback from a calf injury in a busy night for the forwards.
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The Details
Score & Scorers
[one_half last=”no”]BRUMBIES 23
Tries: Ah Wong, Cubelli
Conversions: Lealiifano 2
Penalties: Lealiifano 3
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[one_half last=”yes”]BULLS 6
Penalties: Brummer 2
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Cards
Nil
Crowd
10,024
Photos courtesy Tim Anger
