Chiefs crush Brumbies ‘reserve team’ to seal an Aussie horror season

WELLINGTON: Waikato Chiefs defeated ACT Brumbies 28-10 yesterday to complete New Zealand’s Super Rugby rout over Australian sides this season.

The Chiefs scored three tries to one and led throughout as fullback Damien McKenzie inspired them to an easy win.

The result in the final round of the regular season gives New Zealand teams a 25-0 winning record against Australian opposition, the first such clean sweep over their trans-Tasman rivals.

Australia’s horror run against Kiwi teams actually extends to 30-0 if results from last year are factored in.

Both sides had already qualified for the quarter-finals but the Chiefs needed a win to keep alive their hopes of overtaking the Wellington Hurricanes.

The team that emerges on top will play the Brumbies in Canberra next week, rather than enduring a draining trip to Cape Town to face the Western Stormers.

The Brumbies, guaranteed a home quarter-final next week after topping the Australian conference with just six wins, named a virtual reserve team for the Hamilton fixture.

Yet they dominated early possession against their more fancied opponents but could not convert it into points before a Damian McKenzie pen- alty put the Chiefs on the board.

McKenzie followed up with a scintillating try, swerving his way through the Brumbies defence.

Centre Nigel Ah Wong found a gap to hit back for the Brumbies almost immediately with a converted try, as the visitors added a penalty to cut the Chiefs’ lead at half-time to 13-10.

But scrum-half Tomas Cubelli was sinbinned shortly after the restart and the Chiefs made the most of the advantage, sending Alaimalo over in the corner.

Then Michael Leitch raced over with 10 minutes to go to put the result beyond doubt.