The Brumbies moved on to Pretoria for the last match of their tour in South Africa. They came up against the Bulls, attempting to salvage something from the tour after a disappointing loss to the Cheetahs last week.
The Match
The Brumbies finals chances have suffered a huge blow by going down 44-23 to a rampant Bulls outfit at Loftus. Dropped ball and ill discipline cost them in the heavy loss with the result having huge ramifications on the make up of the Australian conference ladder after the Waratahs won earlier. The Force taking on the Lions on Saturday evening that could see the Brumbies sit outside the top six after this round.
The Brumbies opened the game trying to show their expansive play but the Bulls were up to the challenge with some physical presence shown at the breakdown.
The Bulls had the first chance to open the scoring after five minutes with a long range penalty goal attempt from Jacques-Louis Potgieter but it fell just short and he followed that up with a drop goal attempt that was wide.
The Brumbies struggled to get out of their own half with handling and pushed passes letting them down, and it was Bulls veteran Victor Matfield running onto a pass and throwing a dummy pass that fooled the Brumbies defence and he sent Jan Serfontein over to open the scoring. Potgieter converted to make it 7-0.
Potgieter added another other penalty goal to extend the lead to ten with the penalty count starting to mount against the visitors that easily let the Bulls out of their own half. One sequence of play saw three conceded in succession that saw Potgieter add another penalty goal.
It took until the 20 minute mark for the Brumbies to receive a penalty after a dominant scrum and Christian Lealiifano stepped up to convert his first shot of the night.
The Bulls hit back almost immediately with scrum half Francois Hougaard running through a gap left by the rushing Brumbies defence and found Serfontein who threw a brilliant offload to the supporting Jono Ross who ran through Jesse Mogg to score their second try.
The game lost some of it’s intensity with a bit of back and forth kicking and the Brumbies finally got their hands on the ball with Henry Speight doing his best to get back into the game but they couldn’t come up with anything more than another penalty goal from Lealiifano. That was soon cancelled out by Potgieter’s third penalty from long range to make the score 23-6 at the break despite enjoying 62% of the possession.
The second half didn’t start well for the Brumbies and were on the back foot right from the kickoff. The Bulls went close to scoring but Matt Toomua was judged to have gone high in one tackle and after consulting with the TMO, was sent to the bin for a 10 minute rest.
Potgieter added another three pointer but then it got worse for the Brumbies from there. They tried to go wide from the restart but Nic White’s pass was intercepted by Bjorn Basson and he ran 70 metres untouched to virtually kill any comeback chance the Brumbies had.
They did receive a lifeline from Craig Joubert who claimed the Bulls had kicked the ball back over their own line and from the 5 metre scrum, Henry Speight stepped his way over the line from first receiver.
But once again from the restart the Brumbies found themselves under all sorts of pressure with a dropped restart. The Bulls flexed their muscle at the scrum and demolished the Brumbies front row, but would settle for another penalty to make it 34-13 with 25 minutes remaining.
Potgieter heaped more misery on the Brumbies with his sixth penalty of the night in recurring theme on the night that saw his personal haul of 23 points go a long way in securing the victory.
The Brumbies did manage a second try with Ben Mowen the recipient in unusual circumstances. Henry Speight made the initial break down the right. The ball came back to the left wing with Pat McCabe throwing a hail Mary back infield before going over the sideline that hit a retreating Bulls player. With the ball rolling towards the tryline, Mowen pounced.
With minutes remaining the Bulls secured their bonus point try to Jono Ross after Josh Mann-Rea was sent to the bin with the Bulls on attack in the Brumbies 22.
And with time basically up, the Brumbies scored their third try of the night with Tevita Kuridrani collecting the ball after a Bulls mistake on their own line but it was too little too late with the final score at 44-23.
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The Game Changer
Basson’s intercept try killed any chance of a miraculous comeback.
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The G&GR MOTM
Plenty of Bulls to choose from with Matfield and Serfontein playing well but Jacques-Louis Potgieter cleaned up with his kicking and recorded 23 points off his own boot.
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Wallaby Watch
Not much to be talk about here with the Brumbies dominated across the field. Henry Speight was one of few shining lights.
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The Details
Crowd: 16,463
Score & Scorers
[one_half last=”no”]BULLS 44
Tries: Serfontein, Ross 2, Basson
Conversions: Potgieter 2, Pollard
Penalties: Potgieter 6
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[one_half last=”yes”]BRUMBIES 23
Tries: Speight, Mowen, Kuridrani
Conversions: Lealiifano
Penalties: Lealiifano 2
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Cards
41 min – Matt Toomua (Brumbies) – Yellow
74 min – Josh Mann-Rea (Brumbies) – Yellow
