The Brumbies chances of making the finals have suffered a blow with a 40-15 defeat to the Blues in Auckland tonight. It wasn’t anything like last week, with the Brumbies their own worst enemy and effectively out of the game within ten minutes and unable to catch up and adds to the hoodoo when the Brumbies and Blues meet near the finals.
The Match
The opening kick off summed up the Brumbies night with Nigel Ah Wong knocking on right from the kick off to put them under pressure.
They managed to hold out for a few minutes with the Blues finding space in behind the defence with short kicks before Ihaia West nailed a pinpoint cross field kick to an unmarked Jerome Kaino on the left wing who only had to catch it and stroll over for the opening try.
And before the vocal crowd had a chance to finish cheering that try, the Blues were in again with only seven minutes on the clock after a neat lineout move involving Steve Luatua saw captain James Parsons over in the corner as the Brumbies expected a lineout drive.
The Brumbies finally got their hands on the ball and it took a powerful rolling maul to get the Blues on the backfoot and have it collapsed for a penalty try awarded from Ben O’Keefe. The result saw Jerome Kaino sent for a ten minute rest.
Even down to 14 men, the Blues were displaying their attacking prowess that would have impressed Tana Umaga with Sam Prattley the recipient of great handling in the leadup.
The Blues had their fourth try within 20 minutes as they exposed a stunned Brumbies defence down the wings as Luatua sent Matt Duffie over with Kaino still in the bin to make it 14 points scored in his absence to make it 28-7.
Just before the break, the Brumbies went to their rolling maul weapon which the Blues were initially able to defend but the ball ended up with Toomua and went over out wide to give the Brumbies a slight chance.
Right on the break, the Brumbies took a shot at penalty goal to make it 28-15 at the break.
The second half didn’t start any better for the Brumbies with Jerome Kaino in the action again with his second try after six minutes strolling through a yawning gap from a rolling maul and the conversion from Francis made it a 20 point game.
The Blues dominated the next ten minutes with the Brumbies never able to play in the Blues half and having to defend for long periods.
The Brumbies who were already low on backrow stocks, suffered a blow when Scott Fardy was taken off after clashing heads with Jarrad Butler whilst making a tackle.
There was more dropped ball and poor passing and the Blues lead was denied from being extended with the Blues thinking they had their sixth of the night. As they lined up the conversion, the TMO was asked to look at Matt Duffie’s foot and it was ruled to have gone in touch, denying Matt Vaega a try.
But they didn’t have to wait long before Duffman had his second of the night as he ended a slick backline move to end the Brumbies misery on a bad night for the visitors at 40-15.
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The Game Changer
The kick off. The Brumbies dropped it and never recovered.
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The G&GR MOTM
Ihaia West – Gets the nod over Kaino who got binned and has slowly built up some confidence leading around the Blues backline who found easy metres against the Brumbies.
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Wallaby Watch
A quiet night from the Brumbies contingent that wouldn’t have given Michael Cheika much to get excited about.
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The Details
Score & Scorers
[one_half last=”no”]BRUMBIES 15
Tries: Penalty try, Toomua
Conversions: Lealiifano
Penalties: Lealiifano
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[one_half last=”yes”]BLUES 40
Tries: Kaino 2, Parsons, Prattley, Duffie 2
Conversions: Francis 5
Penalties:
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Cards
12 mins – Kaino (Blues) – Yellow
