The Wellington Hurricanes have snatched a late converted try well after the siren to draw 21-21 with the Brumbies in their trial match at Viking Park in Canberra.
The game was played with typical trial intensity – 100 miles an hour initially before the quality fell away. Both teams limited their kicking and tried to play an expansive game that sometimes worked.
Played in front of a vocal home crowd of around 3,000, the Brumbies fielded what will be close to their strongest team for the season opener and they showed plenty of promise. This would be the only trial game for the majority of the Wallabies contingent.
Matt Giteau led out the Brumbies for the first time as captain and would have been pleased to see the Brumbies start on the front foot and score their first try within 2 minutes through Mitchell Chapman. Giteau’s conversion put the Brumbies out to a 7-0 lead.
Giteau, who was playing his first game of the season, made many attacking runs during his 45 minutes before leaving with a slight cork. He was trying to take some of the heat off Robbie Coleman who was making quite an impression at 12. It was clear the Hurricanes tried to ruffle his feathers with Ma’a Nonu in particular keen to welcome him to this level of rugby. Not to be deterred, he got back up and even went after Nonu later in the game.
The Hurricanes hit back with a try of their own from flanker Victor Vito on 15 minutes after slicing through some tiring defence down the right hand side. Aaron Cruden converted to level at 7-7.
Referee Stuart Dickinson was trying to lay down the law at scrum time, with many ‘chats’ to the respective front rows. It was at the scrums where the Brumbies asserted their authority and looked quite solid with Alexander, Moore and Palmer leading the way.
The Hurricanes were let down by some ill discipline and this was starting to wear thin with Dickinson. Attacking in the 22m, the Brumbies declined shots at penalty goal in favour of going for tries and were rewarded with a Stephen Moore try after 23 minutes. Giteau’s conversion gave the home team a 14-7 lead.
Once again, poor discipline by the Hurricanes led to the third Brumbies try 7 minutes later. After taking the scrum option 5m out after a penalty, powerful no 8 Ita Vaea crashed over after bouncing through some missed tackles out wide. Giteau converted to put the Brumbies out to 21-7 lead.
Wellington certainly had their chances to hit back, only to be let down by poor handling in key areas of the field. Aaron Cruden was one culprit who almost had a Kurtley Beale moment after getting hit in the face after momentarily taking his eye off the ball.
With the half time siren about to go, Wellington hit back with a try of their own through All Black Ma’a Nonu. Excellent lead up play by Conrad Smith saw him set up with the try with a line break that left the Brumbies defence outnumbered. Cruden’s conversion left his side trailing 21-14 at the main break.
The second half could only be best described as dour. Poor handling was on show for both teams especially in the opposition 22. Maybe it was the fact that the season starts next week and players were keen to avoid any collision injuries as both teams were guilty of pushing unnecessary passes.
Both teams rotated their bench players, with the Brumbies doing the bulk of changes which possibly led to the declining quality of the game as new combinations took to the field.
It took until the 80 minute mark for the Hurricanes to finally hold onto the ball again and put pressure on the Brumbies defence. After what seemed like an age after the siren and many phases, Hurricanes winger Julian Savea squeezed his way over to give his team a shot at a draw. The pressure was on kicker Daniel Kirkpatrick, but he handled the ‘advice’ from the crowd and slotted the kick to earn the 21-21 draw.
Coach Andy Friend was impressed with how the scrum went against a quality opposition front row. He also liked how the combinations worked, especially Giteau and Coleman in the midfield which could indicate his thoughts for next weeks season opener against the Chiefs.
Brumbies 21 (Chapman, Moore, Vaea tries; Giteau 3 cons) drew with Hurricanes 21 (Vito, Nonu, Savea tries; Cruden 2 cons, Kirkpatrick con)
