Brumbies trample the Force
The Brumbies march back to the top of the Australian conference with a 28-17 victory over the Western Force in Perth.
Brumbies coach Jake White must have fired his team up before the kick-off, because they came out firing and had the Force on the back foot for the first 40 minutes. The Force couldn't seem to find their way into the match s the Brumbies forwards dominated proceedings.
With a 22-0 lead at the break the Brumbies must have thought it was game over, and so did everybody else for that matter. However, the Force had other ideas and battled their way back into the match with a great performance in the second half.
The Force were far superior in the second half, but it was too little too late and they Brumbies were able to hang on for the win.
Overall both sides would be disappointed with their defences, with some weak tackling letting soft tries in.
A weak clearing kick from Josh Holmes gave the Brumbies an early chance to counter-attack and open the scoring. Jesse Mogg made the most of some space to attack and backed his speed to get around David Pocock before burning Nick Cummins for pace to score the opening try after just two minutes.
The Brumbies continued to pile on the pressure inside Force territory and Henry Speight was used as a strike runner. The Brumbies recycled the ball quickly and used Ben Alexander to crash the ball over the line from close range to give the visitors a 12-0 lead.
The Force had no answers to the onslaught the Brumbies were serving up with the third try stared by a great step from flank Peter Kimlin. The ball went out to Zack Holmes, who burst into space before he floated a pass out to wing Henry Speight and the speedster finished in the corner.
Just before half-time Brumbies flyhalf Holmes spotted a half-gap in the defence from inside the 22m and stepped inside Seymour, brushed off a weak effort from Pocock and scored a great individual try. Brumbies lead 22-0 at the break.
The Force returned from the break with some fire in their bellies and made it count straight away. Wing Napolioni Nalaga got heavily involved carrying the ball up strongly before the ball went out wide to Cummins, who ran over Mogg to score in the corner.
From almost 85m out the Force scored their second try, all started by a great break from Alfie Mafi. The team flooded in to support the flying fullback and Seymour shoveled on a loose pass from Pocock brilliantly for Cummins to crash over the tryline once again.
The fightback was slowed down by the Brumbies thanks to a penalty from Holmes to keep the Canberra side well in front at 25-10 after 55 minutes.
The Force made it three tries apiece after an excellent rolling maul from an attacking line-out and eventually big lock Toby Lynn was shoved over the line by his teammates.
Man of the match: For the Force the stars were tough wing Nick Cummins with his brace of tries, while Napolioni Nalaga added value with every touch. The Brumbies put in a great team effort, but fullback Robbie Coleman and flyhalf Zack Holmes stood out at the playmakers. However, our votes goes to hard working lock Scott Fardy for his tireless effort in the engine room.
Scorers:
For Force:
Tries: Cummins 2, Lynn
Con: Harvey
For Brumbies:
Tries: Mogg, Alexander, Speight, Z.Holmes
Con: Z.Holmes
Pens: Z.Holmes 2
Teams:
Western Force: 15 Alfie Mafi, 14 Nick Cummins, 13 Will Tupou, 12 Rory Sidey, 11 Napolioni Nalaga, 10 Ben Seymour, 9 Josh Holmes, 8 Matt Hodgson, 7 David Pocock (captain), 6 Richard Brown, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Toby Lynn, 3 Salesi Manu, 2 Nathan Charles, 1 Pek Cowan.
Replacements: 16 Elvis Taione, 17 Tetera Faulkner, 18 Phoenix Battye, 19 Lachlan McCaffrey, 20 Brett Sheehan, 21 David Harvey, 22 Patrick Dellit.
Brumbies: 15 Robbie Coleman, 14 Henry Speight, 13 Andrew Smith, 12 Pat McCabe, 11 Jesse Mogg, 10 Zack Holmes, 9 Nic White, 8 Ben Mowen (captain), 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Peter Kimlin, 5 Sam Carter, 4 Scott Fardy, 3 Dan Palmer, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Ben Alexander.
Replacements: 16 Anthony Hegarty, 17 Ruaidhri Murphy, 18 Leon Power, 19 Ita Vaea, 20 Ian Prior, 21 Tevita Kuridrani, 22 Cam Crawford.
Referee: Ian Smith (Australia)
Assistant referees: James Leckie (Australia), Ed Martin (Australia)
TMO: George Ayoub (Australia)
By Timmy Hancox