Brumbies: Comfortable winners
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It was mission accomplished for the Brumbies after bagging a 30-13 Super Rugby win over the Rebels to remain unbeaten in this year's tournament.
The visitors bagged the all-important bonus point in the process at AAMI Park, consolidating their position at the top of the Australian conference.
Whilst the Brumbies were deserved and comfortable winners, they didn't have it all their way in the first half and trailed the Rebels 13-12 at half-time.
However, Jake White's troops did well to keep the Rebels scoreless after the break as they posted 18 unanswered points and simply got better and better as the match wore on.
The men from the capital got off to a flying start though, when full-back Jesse Mogg continued his try-scoring antics from last week and touched down after chasing his kick ahead. Centre Christian Lealiifano added the tricky extras.
The Rebels responded well though and made a game of it for the remainder of the half, with James O'Connor providing eight points from the tee and flank Scott Higginbotham running in his first try for the Melbourne side.
However, the Brumbies were celebrating their sceond try when wing Clyde Rathbone's five-pointer cut the deficit to just one point after the former Wallaby flier finishing superbly in the corner. Lealiifano failed to convert.
Lealiifano, who struggled last weekend with the boot, managed to raise the flags after the interval with two penalties to give the visitors the lead.
Brumbies skipper Ben Mowen then put the result beyond doubt when gathered a high ball from Matt Toomua when Alex Rokobaro failed to gather and showed impressive pace to race in untouched for a converted try.
And when Rebels replacement Jarrod Saffy was shown a yellow card with 12 minutes remaining, the home crowd could sense a first defeat of the season for their team.
This was confirmed when replacement back Robbie Coleman burrowed over after a sustained spell of pressure on the Rebels line to seal the win and bag the bonus point.
The scorers:
For Rebels:
Try: Higginbotham
Con: O'Connor
Pens: O'Connor 2
For Brumbies:
Tries: Mogg, Rathbone, Mowen, Coleman
Cons: Lealiifano 2
Pens: Lealiifano 2
Melbourne Rebels: 15 James O'Connor, 14 Lachlan Mitchell, 13 Mitch Inman, 12 Rory Sidey, 11 Richard Kingi, 10 Kurtley Beale, 9 Nic Phipps, 8 Gareth Delve, 7 Scott Fuglistaller, 6 Scott Higginbotham, 5 Luke Jones, 4 Hugh Pyle, 3 Laurie Weeks, 2 Ged Robinson, 1 Nic Henderson.
Replacements: 16 Shota Horie, 17 Paul Alo Emile, 18 Cadeyrn Neville, 19 Jarrod Saffy, 20 Nick Stirzaker, 21 Alex Rokobaro, 22 Tom English.
Brumbies: 15 Jesse Mogg, 14 Joe Tomane, 13 Andrew Smith, 12 Christian Lealiifano, 11 Clyde Rathbone, 10 Matt Toomua, 9 Nic White, 8 Ben Mowen (c), 7 David Pocock, 6 Peter Kimlin, 5 Sam Carter, 4 Scott Fardy, 3 Dan Palmer, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Ben Alexander.
Replacements: 16 Siliva Siliva, 17 Scott Sio, 18 Fotu Auelua, 19 Colby Faingaa, 20 Ian Prior, 21 Robbie Coleman, 22 Tevita Kuridrani.
Referee: James Leckie (Australia)
Comments
Wallaroo says...
Trinats mate you should start drinking after the game, the Brumbies were in no way lucky. Despite his try the Rebels biggest problem this year is having Bakkiesinbotham playing for them, he never learnt much discipline at the Reds and will carry that for sometime.
Good luck to the Brumbies, based on last week and this they should make the finals and hopefully bring home the trophy to it's rightful home, Australia.
Posted 01:13 25th February 2013
Wallaroo says...
@carpelone not funny mate when the Saffers need NZ coaches to even come close to antipodean rugby.
Posted 01:05 25th February 2013
georgesmith says...
Who came up with the bright idea to get the clown N. Sharpe as sideline commentator? He was hopeless and couldn't even identify the players properly. I think he was sleeping on the sideline. At least anyone new should be trained for the job. What is wrong with the television gang? How about getting some real Wallabies to do the show and not the over-rated posters. Where are the real former Wallabies like D. Hebert, J. Eales, G. Gregan, O.Finegan, C. Latham and G. Smith. J. Mogg is getting better and better,
Posted 22:23 23rd February 2013
ruckingkiwi says...
Thank goodness, after last week I thought we may have been in for another year of Australian garbage. Nice work Brumbies, Whites doing well over there.
Posted 22:15 22nd February 2013
PREEST says...
Well if an Australian team is going to be amongst the finalists it will definitely be the Brumbies~
Posted 15:09 22nd February 2013
carpelone says...
How comes this, the Australians need a Saffa coach to play some decent rugby.
Posted 14:01 22nd February 2013
kpe12 says...
Brumbies are the real deal. As a kiwi it hurts to say it but they will be finalists
Posted 12:44 22nd February 2013
Trinats2 says...
Rebels were right in it until O'Connor went off and Beale did his shoulder. Or the lucky bounce for Mowen try and the sinbin for the Rebels. Could be Brumbies year this year !!!
Posted 11:17 22nd February 2013
melkdave says...
Enjoyable game,and the Rebels really gave it a shotin the 1st half.But the Brumbies just had too much in the end and ran out deserved victors
Posted 11:09 22nd February 2013