Brumbies deny New Zealand clean sweep
THE Brumbies will be flying the Australian flag in the semi-finals as they saw off the Hurricanes 35-25 in a comeback win at GIO Stadium.
Dan McKellar’s side will now prepare for one of the toughest tests in rugby, a trip to Eden Park to battle the Blues for a place in the final.
The Hurricanes had led 22-15 at half-time after two tries and some lethal penalty kicking from Jordie Barrett, but a rare miss from the All Blacks star turned the contest on its head early in the second.
Noah Lolesio trimmed the margin to four points with a penalty on the hour-mark and they grabbed the lead soon after through Tom Banks slicing through the defence to score.
Tom Wright put the game to bed in the 74th minute, cutting through off the back of a powerful maul.
“It was an awesome effort,” said Brumbies skipper Allan Alaalatoa. “We spoke about our finishers coming on and doing a job for us and they certainly did that tonight.”
Two strikes from stand-in skipper Beauden Barrett propelled the Blues to their 14th consecutive win of the season.
Despite going into a 6-0 lead, the Highlanders were dealt a killer blow early on through Andrew Makalio’s red card for a shoulder to the head on Tom Robinson.
The Blues then scored 35 unanswered points courtesy of tries by Akira Ioane, AJ
Lam, Roger Tuisava-Check and Barrett’s brace to seal a convincing 35-6 win.
Richie Mo’unga scored 22 points as the Crusaders romped to a 37-15 victory over the
Queensland Reds courtesy of a clinical second-half display.
Mo’unga is a strong contender for player of the round with his 100 per cent goal kicking, a well-taken try, and his consistently accurate kicks from hand dominating the tempo of the contest.
The two fly-halves traded penalties before Will Jordan scored the opening try off a well-executed backline move.
Suliasi Vunivalu hit back for the Reds before Mo’unga slotted two further penalties before half time.
Crusaders won the second half 21-7 through tries by Mo’unga, Sevu Reece and Finlay Brewis despite Filipo Daugunu’s early score.
Crusaders will host the Chiefs back at Orangetheory Stadium in the semi-finals next weekend.
Half-back Brad Weber scored a try in each half to help the Chiefs to a 39-15 win over the Waratahs. Impressive All Black Weber scored a magnificent opening try to begin a dominant performance by the Chiefs who led 27-10 at halftime.
He completed his double in the 64th minute after back rower Luke Jacobson and centre Alex Nankivell also scored in the first half, while No.8 Pita-Gus Sowakula added to Weber’s second try to complete a five tries to two win.
While the Chiefs were clinical in attack, the Waratahs made too many errors in attacking positions.
“The Chiefs are a classy outfit and they’ve had the wood on us all year,” Waratahs captain Jake Gordon said. “They’re just really hard to contain when they get that front-foot ball.”