Brumbies back on the winning track

Outscoring the Bulls by two tries to none, the Brumbies used pressure and speed on defence to outplay the visitors from South Africa.

As Brumbies captain Stephen Moore said: "It was important that we won, after a couple of losses."

The Brumbies had lost three of their last four matches – including the last two against the Chiefs and Crusaders – but Friday's win sees them overtake the Rebels (who have a bye) at the top of the Aussie conference.

For the Bulls it was a lost opportunity to go to the top of the Africa conference.

After a dour first half, which the home side shaded 9-3, the Brumbies dominated the second 40 minutes – with tries to fullback Nigel Ah Wong and Argentine scrumhalf Tomas Cubelli.

"It's good to get home and have a win," .

"I thought our breakdown was pretty good. We had good line speed and we put pressure on them.

"We had a lot of ball in the first half and we probably could have done a lot better," he added.

"But we knew that sort of pressure would tell in the second half."

The Brumbies had most of the running against the Bulls, who were heavily penalised by New Zealand referee Ben O'Keeffe and appeared to tire in the latter stages of the second half.

The visiting Bulls started the better of the two teams with a dominant forward pack allowing Francois Brummer to convert a scrum penalty to open the scoring in just the third minute.

But three penalties to Christian Leali'ifano in seven minutes put the Brumbies in charge at the break.

Brummer kicked his second penalty three minutes after the restart to get his team back to 6-9.

However, the Brumbies forced a line-out from the kick-off and Ah Wong crossed from a simple backline move.

The Brumbies gradually took full control and they were rewarded for their dominance when the impressive Cubelli burrowed his way over in the corner with just under 15 minutes of the game remaining.

Leali'ifano converted from the sideline to seal a convincing win.

Bulls captain Adrian Strauss said his side had made far too many errors.

"We made a lot of mistakes, a lot of decisions that we didn't execute well enough," he said.

"That's what happens when you play a quality side and they put you under that much pressure on your ball and their ball.

"We handed the ball to them quite easily, we couldn't build any phases and they capitalised on that."

Man of the match: The Bulls loose trio of Hanro Liebenberg, Arno Botha and Pieter Labuschagne worked very hard for little reward, while Marcel van der Merwe produced an impressive scrum performance. David Pocock, in a very different role to what we have become accustomed, was very effective an constant in his cleanouts at ruck time and then made a couple of crucial steal in the final quarter. Jarrad Butler carried strongly and Scott Fardy was also busy. Christian Lealiifano was not flawless, but a vital cog. Scrumhalf Tomás Cubelli is becoming an ever-increasingly important member of the Brumbies squad and he wins our award.

The scorers:

For the Brumbies:

Tries: Ah Wong, Cubelli

Cons: Lealiifano 2

Pens: Lealiifano 3

For the Bulls:

Pens: Brummer 2

Teams:

Brumbies: 15 Aidan Toua, 14 Nigel Ah Wong, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Robbie Coleman, 11 James Dargaville, 10 Christian Lealiifano (co-captain), 9 Tomás Cubelli, 8 Jarrad Butler, 7 David Pocock, 6 Scott Fardy, 5 Sam Carter, 4 Rory Arnold, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore (co-captain), 1 Scott Sio.

Replacements: 16 Josh Mann-Rea, 17 Allan Alaalatoa, 18 Ruan Smith, 19 Tom Staniforth, 20 Blake Enever, 21 Jordan Smiler, 22 Joe Powell, 23 Lausii Taliauli.

Bulls: 15 Sarel Marais, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Francois Brummer, 9 Piet van Zyl, 8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Arno Botha, 6 Pieter Labuschagne, 5 Rudolf Snyman, 4 Marvin Orie, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Adriaan Strauss (captain), 1 Trevor Nyakane.

Replacements: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Lizo Gqoboka, 18 Werner Kruger, 19 Jannes Kirsten, 20 Roelof Smit, 21 Rudy Paige, 22 Tian Schoeman, 23 Dan Kriel.

Referee: Ben O'Keeffe

Assistant referees: Will Houston, Ed Martin

TMO: Peter Marshall