Thirteen-man Brumbies triumph

The Brumbies advanced to the Super Rugby play-offs, where they will meet the Hurricanes next week, after humiliating the Stormers at Newlands on Saturday.

Outscoring the home team by six tries to one, the Brumbies recorded a 39-19 win – despite being reduced to 13 men in the last 10 minutes.

It was a humiliating send-off for coach Allister Coetzee, who has now coached his last match in South Africa – before heading off the Italy.

When your team's only attacking weapons are an overused Damian de Allende and a misfiring maul, then it is clear that there was something wrong with the team tactics.

In stark contrast the Brumbies showed greater intensity and desire, as well as tactical acumen – outplaying the Stormers in all facets of the game.

The Brumbies managed to get under the Stormers skin with calculated off-the-ball niggle and the distraction allowed them to dominate the contact situations, as the home team started to stand off more and more.

And the visitors also dominated the breakdown, by blowing through with greater numbers and ferocity against a Stormers team preferring to have as many players as possible in the defensive line or waiting to carry the ball up. The result was a number of crucial turnovers.

The other big advantage for the Brumbies was that they took their opportunities and points, while the Stormers  opted far to often to set up line-outs and driving mauls that resulted in nothing, while forgoing opportunities to kick penalties and closing the gap when there was still time.

Not winning their own line-outs – mostly through poor throwing, but also shoddy timing – meant the Brumbies also had plenty of free possession.

The Brumbies had a perfect start, with Jesse Mogg first exploiting some sloppy defence, Ita Vaea then charging down an attempted clearance kick and then a sweetly-timed Nick White grubber creating the space for Joe Tomane to run onto and sprint over for the opening try. Christian Lealiifano was wide of the mark, but it was 5-0 after as many minutes.

The Stormers eventually got on the board with a Demetri Catrakilis penalty in the 14th minute, but from the restart the Brumbies blew through a ruck with numbers, turned over the ball and quick hands put Tomane over for a second try. Lealiifano was again wide of the target with the conversion attempt – 10-3.

Tomane got his hat-trick when, from a scrum, he received the ball on the blindside, handed off a feeble attempt at a tackle by Dillyn Leyds and sprinted over. This time Lealiifano slotted the conversion – 17-3 after 25 minutes.

Just after the half-hour mark Catrakilis pulled three points back for the Stormers with his second penalty, but the Brumbies had the final say in the first half – Ita Vaea worming his way over after some strong work by the forwards. Lealiifano's conversion made it 24-6 at the break.

The Stormers got their first stroke of luck five minutes into the second half, when Cheslin Kolbe intercepted a long pass just outside his 22 and sprinted more than 70 metres. Catrakilis added the extras and at 13-24 there was some hope.

Catrakilis (two) and Lealiifano (one) then exchanged penalties (19-27), before Vaea got his second try – this time charging through the limp Stormers defence from about five metres out. Lealiifano's conversion made it 34-19 with just over 15 minutes remaining.

Henry Speight, for a dangerous tackle that had life-threatening undertones, was red-carded and Scott Fardy, for a professional foul, was yellow carded within a minute of each other.

However, even being two men down, the Brumbies still managed to hold out a misfiring Stormers team and finished it with a well-executed Jesse Mogg try – making the final score a humiliating 39-19.

Man of the match: Damian de Allende continued to put up his and for a starting spot in the Springbok team, but for most part the Stormers were all bullied by a more physical Brumbies team. Scott Fardy and David Pocock set the tone at the breakdown, with some great support by hooker Stephen Moore. They received plenty of help from their fellow forwards. The halfback pairing of Christian Lealiifano and Nic White pulled the strings in the backline. However, it was Joe Tomane's first-half hat-trick that set the stage for the victory and he wins our award.

Moment of the match: You can look at all three Joe Tomane's tries, as they were sublime in their execution, especially his hat-trick score. However, it was the Ita Vaea tries – on the stroke of half-time and then midway through the second half – that gave the Brumbies the margin that made it near impossible for the Stormers to catch up – effectively ending the game as a contest.

Villain of the match: There was the usual niggle, maybe not as villainous as in their last meeting, but Henry Speight was guilty of two particularly bad off-the-ball tackles – the second that could have crippled Juan de Jongh for life and certainly warranted the red card he received.

The scorers:

For the Stormers:

Try: Kolbe

Con: Catrakilis

Pens: Catrakilis 4

For the Brumbies:

Tries: Tomane 3, Vaea 2, Mogg

Cons: Lealiifano 3

Pens: Lealiifano

Yellow card: Scott Fardy (Brumbies,  75 – professional foul, collapsing a maul)

Red card: Henry Speight (Brumbies, 74 – foul play, dangerous tackle)

Teams:

Stormers: 15 Cheslin Kolbe, 14 Dillyn Leyds, 13 Juan de Jongh (captain), 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Seabelo Senatla, 10 Demetri Catrakilis, 9 Nic Groom, 8 Nizaam Carr, 7 Siya Kolisi, 6 Michael Rhodes, 5 Manuel Carizza, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Steven Kitshoff.

Replacements: 16 Siyabonga Ntubeni, 17 Allister Vermaak, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Jean Kleyn, 20 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 21 Louis Schreuder, 22 Kurt Coleman, 23 Jaco Taute.

Brumbies: 15 Jesse Mogg, 14 Henry Speight, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Matt Toomua, 11 Joe Tomane, 10 Christian Lealiifano, 9 Nic White, 8 Ita Vaea, 7 David Pocock, 6 Scott Fardy, 5 Blake Enever, 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 Robbie Coleman.

Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa)

Assistant referees: Craig Joubert (South Africa), Jason Jaftha (South Africa)

TMO: Deon van Blommestein (South Africa)