The Brumbies went into the Lions den in Johannesburg attempting to keep their finals hopes alive and following a tough game, those hopes are still in their own hands with a 30-20 bonus point win over the Lions and moving back to the top of the Aussie conference, for the moment.
There was some good play all round the park, with the forwards leading the way in game that was dominated by the respective packs that allowed the backs the space they needed.
The Match
After a bit of a frantic start from both sides, it was the Lions who opened the scoring with a penalty goal to Elton Jantjies after five minutes after a series of penalties in their favour from referee Jaco Peyper.
Jesse Mogg fired a warning shot from one of their few penalties with a shot from around 62 metres that just missed to the left but then Lions winger Ruan Combrinck stepped up from a similar distance to land the Lions second penalty with the discipline problems from last week plaguing the visitors again with five conceded in the opening 15 minutes.
The Brumbies got on the board with a penalty goal to Christian Lealiifano and then almost straight away they scored again with a well worked try to Tevita Kurudrani with a patient build up and quick ball the key to the try and some good runs from Joe Tomane in limited space down the left wing throughout the half.
And then almost immediately they were over again for their second of the night. The Lions defence down the left looked to be expecting a kick but Jesse Mogg unleashed Henry Speight down the right wing and regathered his own chip kick and a couple of phases later Ita Vaea crashed over. Lealiifano converted to make the score 15-6 after 20 minutes.
The Brumbies suffered a blow when Matt Toomua went off after only just returning to the side following a four week layoff with an ankle injury forcing a backline reshuffle with the newly re-signed Robbie Coleman coming on.
But that didn’t deter the Brumbies, as Lealiifano swooped on a poor pass off a Lions lineout and ran untouched to the tryline for their third try of the half. The Lions protested but Peyper’s call stood and all of a sudden the Brumbies were out to a 22-6 lead but after the Lions play in recent weeks, the margin wouldn’t be enough to put the cue in the rack.
Lealiifano had a great chance to extend the lead to 19 points with a penalty shot but the kicking yips from last week re-appeared as he missed from a handy position.
Jantjies also had a chance right on half time to bridge the gap but his shot from beyond half way was wide and the score remained at 22-6.
Early in the second half the Brumbies had the better chances to score off the back of Lions mistakes but were unable to capitalise. Mogg had another long range penalty shot that missed and another try scoring chance went begging off a turnover in the Lions half.
The home side did have the advantage at scrum time and their dominance enabled them to get out of trouble on a number of occasions that lead to Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham replacing both props after just 10 minutes of the half.
As the half wore on, the Brumbies were just shading the Lions with the majority of play in the Lions half with costly turnovers not helping their cause including losing a throw only five metres out from the Brumbies line in a rare excursion to the attacking area.
When they finally got their hands on the ball, they held on to the ball and following around 15 phases Jaco Kriel found the gap and dived over under the posts to give his side some hope of a comeback with the margin reduced to 9 points.
The Lions made their scrum replacements but they seemed to backfire as the Brumbies started to get on top. The Brumbies secured at least two penalties from scrums and following one where they marched the Lions backwards, Jesse Mogg looped a pass to Joe Tomane who scored to secure the bonus point try.
Jesse Mogg added icing to the cake with a long range penalty on his third attempt to put the game to rest at 30-13 but the Lions were able to add a late converted try to Coetzee but the Brumbies ran out 10 point winners.
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The Game Changer
The Brumbies three tries in eight minutes in the first half was enough to keep the Lions at arms length.
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The G&GR MOTM
Ita Vaea – Had a huge game with some sold runs and equally solid defence in a forwards dominated game.
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Wallaby Watch
Joe Tomane ran the ball well in limited space and got on the try scoring sheet late in the game.
Tevita Kuridrani bagged a try and made good metres when given the chance.
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The Details
Score & Scorers
[one_half last=”no”]LIONS 20
Tries: Kriel, Coetzee
Conversions: Jantjies, van der Walt
Penalties: Jantjies, Combrinck
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[one_half last=”yes”]BRUMBIES 30
Tries: Kuridrani, Vaea, Lealiifano, Tomane
Conversions: Lealiifano 2
Penalties: Lealiifano, Mogg
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Cards
Nil
Crowd: 20,326
