Canberra curse continues
The Brumbies have gone two from two against the Kiwis, handing the Hurricanes a 42-25 Super Rugby Pacific defeat in Canberra yesterday.
Fresh off their win over the Highlanders the previous weekend, the Brumbies have ensured they remain just one point behind the table-topping Blues after notching back-to-back wins over New Zealand opposition for the first time since 2014.
And it was a case of the Canberra curse continuing for the Hurricanes, whose three-game winning streak was ripped to shreds in a sloppy display which now makes it six regular season losses in a row on their visits to the Australian capital.
The Canes had won 20 of their past 22 matches against Australian sides, but both those black marks had come against the Brumbies, and it was the case again, as the hosts at GIO Stadium ran in five tries to three, bringing up their 10,000th Super Rugby point in the process – the first Aussie franchise to do so.
Following the script from the previous weekend’s win over the Reds, where they found themselves 17-0 behind, the Hurricanes were again poor starters, though somehow only trailed 16-13 at the break.
The visitors enjoyed 58% firsthalf possession and made 50 fewer tackles than their hosts, but their execution was appalling (eight turnovers conceded to four), with a litany of dropped balls and passes going to ground, while they were also ill-disciplined – no more clearly illustrated than Justin Sangster’s yellow card for a stupid late shoulder on Nic White which allowed the Brumbies to kick out to a 9-3 lead.
Though just as the rookie lock was about to come back on, the Brumbies went down a man themselves with Jahrome Brown binned for slapping the ball out of TJ Perenara’s hands while on the ground, and from there Peter Umaga-Jensen burrowed over for the game’s first try in the 26th minute.
It was a false dawn for the visitors though, as time after time they came up with ugly errors to stunt any progress.
Just as they looked set to grab a second try in quick succession, Salesi Rayasi spilt a low pass, the pack was free kicked for going early at the resulting scrum, James O’Reilly went swiftly with the ensuing lineout but threw astray.
Then soon after that a stray pass from James Blackwell proved a killer as the Brumbies swooped and No 6 Rob Valetini scored a stunning try, hacking ahead from halfway and burning off Jackson Garden-Bachop and Xavier Numia to win the grounding by a finger to put the hosts back in front.
As if they had coach Jason Holland’s voice ringing in their ears, the Hurricanes hit the front again just three minutes into the second stanza when Salesi Rayasi burst through, but the Brumbies would not be deterred, and piled on 19 points in 11 minutes to put them right in the driver’s seat.
Brown scored the try of the game in the 52nd minute. So often great under the high ball, Jordie Barrett couldn’t cling on, and from the scrum Irae Simone brilliantly dummied and sliced through the line to set up the former Waikato flanker.
Five minutes later things were essentially sealed when GardenBachop made the massive blunder of sending his goal-line dropout out on the full and gifting the Brumbies a 5m lineout, and after sending it wide Tom Banks coasted over.
The big moment
Hurricanes first-five Jackson Garden-Bachop sending his goalline dropout out on the full in the 57th minute. That gave the Brumbies a golden 5m lineout to strike from, and Tom Banks coasted over for a third Brumbies try in 11 minutes and the margin became a comfy 15.
The big picture
The second-placed Brumbies improve their record to a very impressive 9-1 and remain just one point behind the tabletopping Blues ahead of their trip to Hamilton to face the Chiefs on Saturday night. The Hurricanes are now 5-5, staying in seventh spot ahead of another Sunday afternoon clash, against the Fijian Drua inWellington.