Bonus-point win for Brumbies

Brumbies: Comfortable winners

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Teams

• ACT Brumbies
• Melbourne Rebels

Also see

• Min-by-min: How the Brumbies made it back-to-back victories

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)