Brumbies who stood tall on the big stage

MUCH of Queensland’s confidence going into Saturday’s Super Rugby AU final was built on its final round 26-7 defeat of the Brumbies at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium, but the Reds may have been duped into buying fool’s gold.

The Reds were not faultless that day but they outplayed a Brumbies side that had already qualified in the No.1 position to earn the right to host the final in Canberra. Their defeat that day was put down to the fact they had nothing to play for.

“No one will remember tonight in a couple of weeks,” was Brumbies coach Dan McKellar’s prophetic assessment of the Suncorp battle. In fact, the Brumbies tried hard that night. But they were trying hard to beat the Reds at their own game.

Come the title-decider at Canberra’s GIO Stadium on Saturday night, they reverted to their own game. Masterful as the plan might have been, the Brumbies may have wasted it on Queensland even though they came away with the desired result, a 28-23 victory.

The Reds saved arguably their worst performances of the season for the grand final, turning in an even more miserable performance than when they lost 45-12 to NSW in Sydney on August 8.

The Reds pride themselves on being such a young team but for much of the grand final they played aimlessly.

The Reds’ lineout was a shambles throughout.

Yet still they remained in the fight and, at 28-23 down in the 73rd minute, were granted a penalty within easy range of the posts.

Captain Liam Wright gambled everything, kicked to the corner — and promptly lost yet another lineout. It was arguably his only bad decision of the night. Somehow he had kept his out-of-sorts team in the contest but it would have been a travesty had not the Brumbies finally prevailed.

Queensland’s casualties from the match, Jordan Petaia (hip flexor) and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto (concussion), are both expected to fly today to the Hunter Valley where the Wallabies are in camp.