Super Rugby

Bonus point Brumbies outclass Reds

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Canberra’s Brumbies finished their regular Super rugby season with a 40-27 bonus point victory over Queensland’s Reds at GIO Stadium in Canberra.

The Reds were the first to score in the match but the Brumbies went on to outscore the visiting side by six tries to three.

With this victory, the Brumbies have won their last five matches in Canberra against the Reds and their last seven against all teams this season.

The Brumbies have now beaten the Chiefs, Waratahs, Lions, Blues, Sunwolves, Bulls and now the Reds in successive home matches and is the first time since 2007 that they have enjoyed such a run.

The Reds finish the season with six wins and ten losses from sixteen matches played while the Brumbies have ten wins and six losses.

Next week the Brumbies will be in Canberra again as they won the Australian Super rugby conference which earns them a home Super rugby quarter-final.

The Brumbies will, however, have to wait until the end of the final match in the round to get confirmation on who they will be playing but it’s likely that they will be facing one of three South African sides – the Bulls, Lions or Stormers.

The Brumbies will be relieved after some concern in the match when captain and playmaker Christian Lealiifano was flattened in a tackle by Taniela Tupou in the 16th minute. The Reds prop was yellow carded for the tackle and Lealiffano took some time to recover but later seemed to be unaffected.

The card turned out to be the turning point in the match as the Reds were leading and scored a try from an intercept. However, the try which would have taken the Reds to 12-0 was disallowed and the Queenslanders had to play with 14 men for the next 10 minutes.

A minute after Tupou went off the Brumbies opened their account on the scoreboard as Andrew Muirhead slipped in front of the line which wrongfooted a couple of Reds defenders but allowed him to correct and dive over the line to score.

Muirhead’s try meant that there had effectively been a two-try turnaround as the Reds had a try disallowed and the Brumbies had scored one.

From this point on the Brumbies took control of the match and went on to score six tries – one from a penalty try which also saw Scott Higginbotham yellow carded just before the half time break.

The Reds never gave up though and scored two tries in the second half but after playing through two yellow cards and 20 minutes with 14 players on the field they didn’t really threaten the Brumbies again.

The Brumbies continue their quest next week but the Reds next outing will have a different looking team as captain Samu Kerevi, Duncan Paia’aua, Scott Higginbotham and winger Sefa Naivalu all plan to leave the union now that their season has ended.

Final Score Brumbies 40(19) Reds 27(10)

Scorers

Brumbies
Tries – A.Muirhead, L.McCaffrey, Penalty try, R.Arnold, T.Wright, M.Douglas
Pen –
Con – C.Lealiifano 3, P.Try, R. Lonergan
Drop –
Cards –

Reds
Tries -B.Hegarty, D.Paia’aua, L.Wright
Pen – B.Hegarty,
Con – B.Hegarty 3
Drop – M.McGahan
Cards – T.Tupou (14th min yellow), S.Higginbotham (41st min yellow)

Match Officials
Referee: Paul Williams
Assistant Ref 1: Ben O’Keeffe
Assistant Ref 2: Graham Cooper
TMO: James Leckie

Teams

Brumbies

15 Tom Banks, 14 Andy Muirhead, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Irae Simone, 11 Tom Wright, 10 Christian Leali’ifano (c), 9 Joe Powell, 8 Lachlan McCaffrey, 7 Jahrome Brown, 6 Rob Valetini, 5 Sam Carter, 4 Rory Arnold, 3 Allan Alaalatoa, 2 Folau Fainga’a, 1 Scott Sio

Replacements:16 Connal McInerney, 17 James Slipper, 18 Leslie Leuluaialii-Makin, 19 Murray Douglas, 20 Pete Samu, 21 Ryan Lonergan, 22 Jordan Jackson-Hope, 23 Len Ikitau

Reds

1. JP Smith, Alex Mafi, 3. Taniela Tupou, 4. Izack Rodda, 5. Harry Hockings, 6. Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 7. Liam Wright, 8. Angus Scott-Young, 9. Scott Malolua, 10. Matt McGahan, 11. Filipo Daugunu, 12. Samu Kerevi (c), 13. Chris Feauai-Sautia, 14. Jock Campbell,15. Bryce Hegarty

Replacements: 16. Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 17. Ruan Smith, 18. Gav Luka,19. Caleb Timu, 20. Scott Higginbotham, 21. Moses Sorovi, 22. Duncan Paia’aua, 23. Sefa Naivalu

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