Brumbies edge blunder Bulls

The Brumbies moved back to the top of the Australian conference with a hard-earned 22-16 win over the Bulls in Canberra on Friday.

It was two tries by barnstorming wing Henry Speight that set up the victory against a Bulls team looking devoid of ideas and blundering their way through the game.

The visitors will have some questions about decisions made by South African referee Marius van der Westhuizen – who looked scared to make calls and on at least one occasion was overruled by a team of Australian assistants.

However, the Bulls simply did not deserve this win.

The Brumbies knew what to do and that was to push the envelope as much as possible, while limiting their errors.

The Bulls, in contrast, got caught between a kicking game and an expansive approach – going nowhere for long periods.

The Brumbies leapfrogged the Waratahs to the top of the Australian conference ahead of the defending champions' match against the Lions in Johannesburg on Saturday.

The loss left the Pretoria-based Bulls five points outside the Super Rugby play-off positions, with just two games left, and they are still without a win in Australasia for over three years.

The Brumbies, whose last loss at home to the Bulls was in 2007, led 22-9 after Speight's second try in the 58th minute and they looked to be heading for a comfortable win.

But the Bulls fought back with a try to Pieter Labuschagne off the back of a rolling maul in the 67th minute to trail by six points.

The Brumbies were under pressure to hold on but the Bulls let themselves down by taking some poor attacking options in the final stages.

Replacement lock Jordan Smiler scored the Brumbies' opening try in the 30th minute, after a bad defensive read by Bulls centre Burger Odendaal for the Brumbies to lead 8-6 at half-time.

Speight beat off tackles by Handré Pollard and Odendaal to score his first try six minutes after the resumption and was over again after – brushing off a weak effort from JJ Engelbrecht close to the Bulls try-line.

Labuschagne kept the Bulls in it with his foraging try with Pollard finishing with three penalty goals and a conversion from five attempts.

"We got the job done, it was a bit close at the end, but we needed that win at this stage of the season and we did that," Brumbies skipper Stephen Moore said.

"It was a very stop-start game and maybe we were a bit rusty after last week's bye, so we need to do better next week against the Western Force in Perth."

Bulls captain Pierre Spies said his side had made too many mistakes.

"It was a battle, you have to give credit to the Brumbies, but I think we made too many mistakes and we could have converted on those things," Spies said.

"We will have to look at that for next week's game against the Rebels in Melbourne."

Man of the match: Not many Bulls put their hands up, although Rudy Paige and Pierre Spies had their moments. Christian Lealiifano directed the traffic, Nic White was as spiteful as always (with good affect), while David Pocock was a constant nuisance. However, our award goes to Brumbies wing Henry Speight – who used his limited opportunities and score the match-winning try.

The scorers:

For the Brumbies:

Tries: Smiler, Speight 2

Cons: Lealiifano 2

Pen: Lealiifano

For the Bulls:

Try: Labuschagne

Con: Pollard

Pens: Pollard 3

Teams:

Brumbies: 15 Jesse Mogg, 14 Henry Speight, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Robbie Coleman, 11 Joe Tomane, 10 Christian Lealiifano, 9 Nic White, 8 Ita Vaea, 7 David Pocock, 6 Scott Fardy, 5 Sam Carter, 4 Rory Arnold, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore (captain), 1 Scott Sio.

Replacements: 16 Josh Mann-Rea, 17 Allan Alaalatoa, 18 Ruan Smith, 19 Jordan Smiler, 20 Jarrad Butler, 21 Michael Dowsett, 22 Nigel Ah Wong, 23 James Dargaville.

Bulls: 15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Francois Hougaard, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Pierre Spies (captain), 7 Arno Botha, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 Flip van de Merwe, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Dean Greyling.

Replacements: 16 Callie Visagie, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Morné Mellett, 19 Jacques du Plessis, 20 Pieter Labuschagne, 21 Jacques Louis Potgieter, 22 Travis Ismaiel, 23 Jesse Kriel.

Referee: Marius van der Westhuizen

Assistant referees: Rohan Hoffmann, Ed Martin

TMO: Ian Smith