Brumbies hold off Chiefs fightback
Chiefs Brumbies
W14 26 ith the way their Super Rugby season started, it was hard to imagine a match in which the Chiefs were well and truly dealt to.
So instead of relying on imagination, the Brumbies last night made it a reality — for about 45 minutes.
Then, as they did in their wins over the Blues and Crusaders, the Chiefs came to life. But unlike those matches, their second-half flourish wasn’t enough to get them home as the Brumbies scraped to a 26-14 win.
Defeat was made worse by the loss of Luke Jacobson, who managed just 11 minutes in his return from ongoing concussion issues before having to leave the game with a leg injury.
“We just didn’t front up, particularly in that first half — we were pretty much still on the bus,” Chiefs captain Sam Cane said after the match.
After being beaten after the hooter a week ago at home by the Highlanders, the Brumbies had more anxious moments after a dominant first half, as the Chiefs threatened constantly in the final half hour.
But for all the problems they caused the Brumbies, handling errors, poor lineouts and some good work from the Australian side at the breakdown kept the Chiefs from making the most of their territorial advantage.
The Brumbies applied pressure from the opening whistle culminating in a try to fullback Tom Banks inside the opening 10 minutes.
He was followed over by former Warriors NRL star Solomone Kata five minutes later, and after 15 minutes, the Chiefs faced a 12-point deficit.
Things got worse for the hosts just before halftime when No 8 Pete Samu crashed over from the back of a scrum 5m from the Chiefs line, giving the Brumbies a 19-0 halftime lead.
It was a dismal 40 minutes for the Chiefs, and only got worse after halftime when Samu again crossed the tryline with ease.
At that point, the Chiefs had to be the next to score to have any hope of maintaining their perfect record, and did so in unlikely fashion.
Enjoying a period of possession deep in Brumbies territory, first-five Aaron Cruden ran a hard line from 5m out to cut through the defence and score. The Chiefs were in again soon after, this time Anton LienertBrown running the crash ball line.
With 25 minutes remaining and the Chiefs needing two tries to match the visitors, they had plenty of opportunities but were let down by execution, giving the coaches plenty to think about heading into their bye week. Chiefs 14 (A. Cruden, A. Lienert-Brown tries; D. McKenzie 2 cons) Brumbies 26 (P. Samu 2, T. Banks, S. Kata tries; N. Lolesio 3 cons). Halftime: 19-0.
● The Reds continued a good night for Australian rugby by scoring 10 tries in a 64-5 rout of the Sunwolves in Brisbane. The win was the Reds’ first after starting the season with three defeats on the road. The Rebels had earlier lost 36-24 to the Sharks in Melbourne.