It’s been a while since we’ve seen a build up to a match between two Australian teams like we saw this week – we’ve had reports of frostiness between Reds and Brumbies players at the Wallabies logistics camp – we’ve seen Ewen McKenzie and Jake White trading statistics in the media to support their teams but at the end of the day none of that really meant a thing once the players got on the field.
We thought the outcome of this match was going to have a big influence on the Australian rugby landscape in 2013 – the winner would be the leader of the Australian conference, and thanks to the Waratahs fighting effort against the Chiefs last night, would also move to the top of the overall Super Rugby ladder – the only candidates to be the next Wallabies coach would have bragging rights dependent on the result and Wallaby positions could well be decided based on performances tonight.
All of those factors generated massive expectations and publicity. A noisy and parochial crowd of 38,404 turned up at Suncorp Stadium to witness a clash of two teams that can both have realistic expectations of taking the Super Rugby title this year – and isn’t that something to rejoice about.
The match lived up to expectations but after 80 minutes of battle the teams couldn’t be split. That still means the Brumbies move to the top of the overall ladder even though neither team got the win they were both hoping for.
The Match
Ewen McKenzie said in his press conference that only one team came to play tonight. He also said the Reds could have played like the Brumbies, kicked it back to them and the crowd would have walked out at halftime. Ben Mowen laughed that off and assured us that the Brumbies came to play as well. Obviously the Brumbies did come to play but there was a massive contrast between the intent of the two teams but that just showed that you can play with a contrasting styles and still get the same result.
You could look at the game and say the Brumbies played too conservatively – you could say the Reds played too aggressively but both of those tactics were by design. The teams followed the game plans they were given and they followed them well. Jake White confirmed the Brumbies intention was to try and slow the Reds down – to limit their opportunities and not to make mistakes. Ewen McKenzie confirmed the Reds intention was to keep attacking, no matter what.
The battle of the set piece was fairly even and both teams turned over the ball at crucial times from their lineouts. The Reds created far more try scoring opportunities than the Brumbies but they also made plenty of errors that stopped them from converting those opportunities. Many of those errors were a result of the Brumbies excellent defence. The Brumbies were tenacious, they were relentless and they defended their line for extraordinarily long periods when it seemed certain that the Reds would score. They also showed some good attacking flair and their build up to their only try of the night was everything you’d want from a top class team.
The Reds were on a mission tonight – they wanted tries and I lost count of the number of times James Horwill turned down kickable shots for a penalty goal or took a quick tap from a penalty as did Will Genia on a number of other occasions. Were they the wrong decisions to take? Hindsight is a wonderful thing but as I said earlier this was part of the Reds game plan and they certainly stuck to it with Quade Cooper not having a single attempt at a penalty goal in the match. The Reds did eventually score three tries and had a number of others disallowed that were very close run things – they also defended well enough to restrict the Brumbies to only one try.
Regardless of the fact that no winner could be decided, it was a tremendously exciting match. Both teams have clearly established their credentials as potential champions in 2013.
The only man on the field tonight who didn’t perform well was referee Glen Jackson who I thought was utterly incompetent and out of his depth. He completely lost control of the match and particularly the breakdown. He deserves to be suspended from refereeing for a couple of weeks – there have to be consequences for such a poor performance.
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The Game Changer
The decision by referee Jackson in the 52nd minute to penalise the Reds at the kickoff for alleged blocking. The decision was clearly wrong and cost the Reds three points. From the ensuing kickoff the Brumbies did exactly the same thing and the referee called play on.
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Key Performances
For the Reds Digby Ioane, Rod Davies, Quade Cooper and James Horwill were very good. For the Brumbies Jesse Mogg and George Smith were very good.
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The G&GR MOTM
Liam Gill was outstanding again tonight and outplayed his more experienced opponent, George Smith.
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The Details
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Score & Scorers:
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Reds
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Chiefs
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Score:
Tries:
Conversions:
Penalties:
Drop Goals:
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19
Schatz, Davies, Gill
Cooper – 2/3
–
–
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19
Lealiifano
Lealiifano – 1/1
Lealiifano – 4/4, White 0/2
–
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Cards:
Lealiifano (Brumbies) – Yellow – 29th min
Sio (Brumbies) – Yellow – 69th min
Referee:
Glen Jackson (New Zealand)
