Brumbies trample terrible Rebels
14 Apr 2012
SIMON BORCHARDT reports on the Brumbies’ 37-6 thrashing of the Rebels in Canberra.
The Rebels made history last week when they won two consecutive Super Rugby matches at home for the first time, but they remain as rubbish as ever when they’re on the road. The Brumbies had this forgettable game wrapped up by half-time and move back into the top three of the combined standings as Australia’s conference leaders.
The hosts capitalised on the 65% of the possession and territory they enjoyed in the first half to score four tries.
The first came from a scrum on the Rebels’ 22 with midfielder Pat McCabe breaking through a poor tackle from James O’Connor. The Brumbies then opted to put a kickable penalty into touch, won the lineout and flanker Michael Hooper burst away from the maul to score. A minute later, lock Scott Fardy crashed over for his first Super Rugby try.
Things went from bad to worse for the Rebels when captain Gareth Delve was yellow carded on the half-hour mark for a professional foul in the red zone. The Brumbies opted for a scrum and a few phases later No 8 Fotu Auelua appeared to place the ball over the line, only for the TMO to rule that it had been knocked on. It didn’t make much difference, though, as the hosts claimed the bonus-point try soon after through second rower Sam Carter.
The Rebels had 66% of the ball in the third quarter of the match, but couldn’t do anything with it, and the Brumbies extended their lead with 15 minutes to go when Fardy scored his second try.
25 Comments
14 Apr 2012, 11:28 am
The Rebels are the plucky underdogs, but will they win? I doubt it, but I hope they put up a good fight nevertheless.
14 Apr 2012, 11:36 am
May the best team win this crucial derby.
14 Apr 2012, 11:55 am
Big crowd here
14 Apr 2012, 12:19 pm
Poor Rebels, your not playing The Blues now
14 Apr 2012, 12:28 pm
Ah, that’s the sort of score I like to see!
Pity I’m working and cannot watch the game…
14 Apr 2012, 12:36 pm
The Brumbies on the verge of taking the quota club 3rd spot.
Lets hear a cheer for the Australian and South African representatives that negotiated that one with SANZAR
14 Apr 2012, 12:45 pm
10th to 3rd spot.
Maybe the highlights reel can include a shot of an ARU and SANZAR official shaking hands on the deal.
14 Apr 2012, 13:07 pm
@chch(chch)-6: Agree, the whole system sucks what with this conference rubbish.
Super rugby used to be great when there were only 12 teams…SA & Aus struggle to field more than four competitive teams and the Kiwis are only slightly better off by dint of a more “professional” approach.
14 Apr 2012, 13:11 pm
The Aussies may come to regret selling SANZAR this conference rubbish. While it means they are guaranteed a team in the playoffs, it also means they spend more time playing against weaker opposition. Ultimately, this will hurt Australian rugby.
14 Apr 2012, 13:12 pm
@BrumbiesBoy(BrumbiesBoy)-8:
The Reds are actually and coincidently going to drop from 3rd to 10th spot too.
14 Apr 2012, 13:22 pm
Brumbies heading to SA full of confidence. LOL
14 Apr 2012, 13:26 pm
Wouldn’t it be great if the Lions beat the Brumbies? Quite possible too.
14 Apr 2012, 13:35 pm
Lions to beat Bulls
14 Apr 2012, 13:48 pm
Saffas claim aus is the weaker conference. They can count there lucky stars super rugby expanded to S14 then S15 as they won nothing during S12. The watering down of the aus sides has allowed saffas to pick up points on tour. So instead of whinging about aus conference count your lucky stars getting points.
Aus rugby will get better as we will get better players from these weak teams. Overtime aus rugby will get strong again whilst nz will get weaker…..aus have learned to compete against other codes whilst in nz league and soccer is getting popular….. Nz rugby competing against other codes is in its infancy and they are struggling. Nz are struggling to keep a professional club and super comp going.
Aus to get strong, nz to struggle in the short term years to come. Sa will benefit in the short term.
14 Apr 2012, 13:56 pm
Your reasoning make no sense at all. You are trying to be doctor and profet at the same time, of which you are neither.
Poor evaluation and even worst prediction.
Stick to ausie rules mate.
14 Apr 2012, 13:57 pm
Profet=prophet
14 Apr 2012, 14:14 pm
We are very diluted here in aus, League, AFL etc, It’s amazing we can compete at all
14 Apr 2012, 14:17 pm
SA Aussie
We all have our issues. But yes, true.
14 Apr 2012, 14:42 pm
the aussie games are very boring but the commentors are the best. More entertaining than the game at times
14 Apr 2012, 14:52 pm
@wallabie.(wallabie.)-14: Look at the points table and results against opposition from the other two conferences. It is the weakest conference – no question.
14 Apr 2012, 15:19 pm
I couldn’t even watch this game..it was worse than watching paint dry.
15 Apr 2012, 01:31 am
@wallabie.(wallabie.)-14: Argument lacks logic, wally, as the Lions, then Transvaal, won the Super 10.
15 Apr 2012, 15:25 pm
Kak
Yea…the bulls and stormers get a leg up from their own conference.
15 Apr 2012, 15:33 pm
22 joe
How many times from S10 to end of S12 did a saffa side win the tourney.
My point is Aus has faced stiff comp at home with all the codes and union has learned to survive. NZ are currently getting stiff comp from soccer due to the a – league which has resulted in surprising good results at SWC. Nz will struggle to keep youngsters in union when soccer pays well and is a safer game for sons mothers.
Sa only knows of two sports in the caucasian demographic…cricket and rugby. Cricket is rubbish so most saffas have half an eye on. This puts pressure on rugby to produce results.
With more teams playing in super rugby in aus we will get stronger. We will get better results as more numbers are being added to the pool. Saffas hate it when aus beats the boks…because on paper….depth…we should not even compete!
16 Apr 2012, 01:03 am
Well let’s be honest – the Aussies have one really bad team this year and they usually have another underperforming team each season.
We, on the other hand, until this year have had 2 teams that always bring up the rear of the comp. I don’t see a huge difference between the two. You would expect the Rebels to get a bit better over the next couple of years while they slowly build a foundation and the Cheetahs are slowly managing to get some consistency and defence to go with their good attack (a bit like the Reds from a few years ago maybe?)
The Kiwi sides usually also have one poor team in the comp but generally seem to have a little more depth. Probably because there is nothing else to do in NZ so you may as well play rugby. Coupled with the fact that nearly all the decisions tend to go their way they appear to be stronger.
So all in all there isn’t a huge difference between the comps and hopefully it will even up even more as time goes by.
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