The Brumbies secured their fourth victory of the Super Rugby season when they beat the Melbourne Rebels 37-6 in Canberra on Saturday.
The Brumbies managed to stop the Rebels from crossing their tryline whilst scoring five tries for the bonus point.
The victory puts the Brumbies back on top of the Australian Super Rugby conference ahead of their tour of South Africa which starts next week against the Bulls.
The bonus point win allowed the Brumbies to leapfrog the Waratahs and the Reds as the leading Australian team and kept them in contention to finish in the top two and host a semi-final.
They were far too strong for a disappointing Rebels outfit, who were a shadow of the team that overwhelmed the Auckland Blues the week before.
Under new coach Jake White, the young Brumbies players recovered well from their recent loss to the Reds and were never threatened by the visitors from Melbourne.
The Brumbies dominated territory and possession from the outset and were rewarded with two Christian Lealiifano penalties in the opening 10 minutes.
Melbourne hardly touched the ball in the early stages but they struck back after 15 minutes with a massive 53 metre penalty from Danny Cipriani.
But the Brumbies responded immediately when inside centre Pat McCabe brushed aside fellow Wallaby James O'Connor to score under the posts.
O'Connor replied with a penalty, only for the Brumbies to seize control with tries for flanker Michael Hooper and lock Scott Fardy, both coming from sloppy defending around the edge of the rucks.
Things went from bad to worse for the Rebels when skipper Gareth Delve was shown the yellow card for persistent offences.
During his 10 minutes off the field the Brumbies scored a fourth try when Mowen steamed onto an inside ball from McCabe to touch down beside the posts.
The Rebels were far more committed in the second half and tried hard to break down the Brumbies defence, but a series of unforced errors continually handed the advantage back to the home side.
The Brumbies absorbed everything the Rebels threw at them, then had the final say when Fardy crashed over for his second try.
Final Score Brumbies 37 (30) Rebels 6 (6)
Scorers
Brumbies
Tries - P. McCabe, M. Hooper, S. Fardy 2, B. Mowen
Pen - C. Lealiifano 2
Con - C. Lealiifano 3
Drop -
Cards -
Rebels
Tries -
Pen - D. Cipriani, O'Connor
Con -
Drop -
Cards - G. Delve (yellow)
Match Officials
Referee: Craig Joubert
Assistant Ref 1: James Leckie
Assistant Ref 2: Damien Mitchelmore
TMO: Steve Leszczynski
Teams
Brumbies
1. Ruaidhri Murphy, 2. Stephen Moore, 3. Dan Palmer, 4. Scott Fardy, 5. Sam Carter, 6. Ben Mowen, 7. Michael Hooper, 8. Fotu Auelua, 9. Nick White, 10. Christian Lealiifano, 11. Joe Tomane, 12. Pat McCabe, 13. Tevita Kuridrani, 14. Henry Speight, 15. Jesse Mogg
Replacements: 16. Anthony Hegartym, 17. Ben Alexander, 18. Peter Kimlin, 19. Ita Vaea, 20. Ian Prior, 21. Robbie Coleman, 22. Andrew Smith.
Rebels
1. Nic Henderson, 2. Ged Robinson, 3. Rodney Blake, 4. Al Campbell, 5. Hugh Pyle (vc), 6. Luke Jones, 7. Jarrod Saffy, 8. Gareth Delve (c), 9. Nick Phipps, 10. Danny Cipriani, 11. Mark Gerrard, 12. James O'Connor, 13. Mitch Inman, 14. Lachlan Mitchell, 15. Kurtley Beale.
Replacements: 16. Luke Holmes, 17. Eddie Aholelei, 18. Michael Lipman, 19. Tim Davidson, 20. Richard Kingi, 21. Julian Huxley, 22. Lloyd Johansson.
