After 13 consecutive losses, the NSW Waratahs have finally beaten the ACT Brumbies, holding on to close out the match 28-23 in front of over 20,000 fans in Sydney. In what was a fiercely contested contest, it took an 82nd minute turnover to replacement prop Isaac Kailea, to seal the deal and see those in sky blue with bragging rights.
The Brumbies have not been bested by the Waratahs since 2018 and despite early dominance from them, went to the sheds training NSW by 21-6. Three first half tries to the Tahs gave the home side real momentum, so much so, that the halftime break was the worst thing to happen to them. Two scorching tries from turnover and a third with patient build up, with Brumby hooker Billy Pollard in the bin for a high shot of Gleeson, was a fair reflection on the first half. For the Brumbies, poor hands and lots of turnovers counted against them, with only two (rare) penalty conversions to Noah Lolesio to show for their endeavours.
The second half descended into a scrappy affair as both sides maintained the physical battle that saw errors and poor decisions under fatigue enter the play. The Brumbies were always going to mount a comeback and did so despite Tom Hooper also spending 10 minutes in the sin bin for a wresting ‘flip’ on Tahs prop Dan Botha. The Brumbies got to within three points with 7 minutes to go. It took a piece of Max Jorgensen brilliance who kicked twice for Joey Walton to score to extend the gap to 10 in favour of NSW. However, the Brumbies rallied again and a brilliant kick from Jack Drebreczini, under advantage, to Andy Muirhead saw them close to 5 points, with a conversion to come. The kick was missed and with 5 minutes to go, the game was there for either to take.
Wallabies coaches in attendance would have loved what they saw from both sets of forwards in particular. It was fast, fearsome physicality, combined with skill and good engines and big minutes played. The players who all had strong matches included: Langi Gleeson, Bob Valentini, Tom Hooper, Nick Frost, Isaac Kailea, Rob Leota, Max Jorgensen, Andrew Kellaway, Corey Toole, Allan Alaalatoa and Blake Schoupp. The match up between Gleeson & Valentini was colossal, with Gleeson deservedly getting the G&GR MOTM gong. However, some existing Wallabies probably harmed their selection chances with their performances.
For those who missed the match, you can catch all the highlights at rugby.com.au in their match live blog.
Full time: NSW Waratahs 28 ACT Brumbies 23.
