Brumbies tame weak Force
The Brumbies cruised to a comfortable 27-14 victory over an underwhelming Western Force in their Australian derby in Perth on Saturday.
It was the second defeat in as many weeks for the Force after they went down to the Waratahs last week, whilst the Brumbies bounced back convincingly from their defeat to the Reds.
The visitors made the early running as they took the game to the Force, and some powerful driving play from the forwards eventually saw lock Scott Fardy pile over the line for the opening try.
It was not long before they had crossed the whitewash again, with fullback Jesse Mogg dotting down in the corner after 15 phases of sustained pressure, and it was looking ominous for the home side who found themselves 14-0 down after 15 minutes.
The onslaught continued as a flowing backline move saw wing Robbie Coleman dive over in the corner for their third try, but they were struck a blow soon afterwards when Mogg was shown a yellow card for a dangerous tackle.
However, the Force were unable to take advantage of the extra man, and the Brumbies had the last say before half-time with Nic White slotting a penalty to give them a 24-0 lead at the break.
The Force made a number of changes at half-time as they looked for a big response in the second half, but the Brumbies struck first after the break as White slotted another penalty to stretch their lead to 27-0.
The Force threw everything at the visitors in the final stages as they desperately tried to salvage something from the match and they were finally rewarded with two late tries from replacement Jayden Hayward and No.8 Ben McCalman.
Man of the match: Brumbies scrumhalf Nic White was not only deadly off the kicking tee but also kept his team on the front foot with some clever tactical kicking and provided a fluid link between forwards and backs.
The scorers:
For the Western Force:
Tries: Hayward, McCalman
Cons: Ebersohn 2
For the Brumbies:
Tries: Fardy, Mogg, Coleman
Cons: White 3
Pens: White 2
Yellow card: Jessie Mogg (Brumbies, 28 – Dangerous tackle)
Teams:
Western Force: 15 Luke Morahan, 14 Patrick Dellit, 13 Junior Rasolea, 12 Kyle Godwin, 11 Nick Cummins, 10 Zack Holmes, 9 Alby Mathewson, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 Matt Hodgson (captain), 6 Chris Alcock, 5 Hugh McMeniman, 4 Sam Wykes, 3 Kieran Longbottom, 2 Nathan Charles, 1 Tetera Faulkner.
Replacements: 16 Heath Tessmann, 17 Pek Cowan, 18 Ollie Hoskins, 19 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 20 Angus Cottrell, 21 Ian Prior, 22 Sias Ebersohn, 23 Jayden Hayward.
Brumbies: 15 Jesse Mogg, 14 Henry Speight, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Pat McCabe, 11 Robbie Coleman, 10 Matt Toomua, 9 Nic White, 8 Jarrad Butler, 7 David Pocock, 6 Ben Mowen (captain), 5 Sam Carter, 4 Scott Fardy, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephan Moore, 1 Scott Sio.
Replacements: 16 Siliva Siliva, 17 Ruan Smith, 18 Ruaidhri Murphy, 19 Leon Power, 20 Lachlan McCaffrey, 21 Conrad Hoffmann, 22 Andrew Smith, 23 Lionel Cronje.
Referee: Nick Briant (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Ian Smith (Australia), Ed Martin (Australia)
TMO: George Ayoub (Australia)
