With The Force and The Waratahs on a bye and two of the remaining three teams in the Australian Conference playing each other, it was an abbreviated week in Super 15 for the Australian Conference.
Melbourne Rebels vs Queensland Reds
Score: 23-15; Venue: Melbourne Rectangular Stadium
With both teams coming into the game needing a win to keep their already faint playoff hopes alive, any extra spice that needed to be added to this Australian derby was there in spades. Of course the game itself ended up being one of two distinct parts and in many ways reflected both teams’ seasons until this point. For The Reds, seemingly promising and ultimately frustrating, for The Rebels, relying on toughness and a lack of basic errors that have terrorised them in the past and ultimately showing signs of improvement. It all started with the best 20 minutes of The Reds season, they outplayed The Rebels with a mixture of quick ball and smart interplay centering around Will Genia and Quade Cooper who appeared, unlike last week, to once again be on the same wavelength. For the first time in what seems like years, the pair were able to line up together and remind everyone why they were able to lead The Reds to Super Rugby glory in 2011 when they were both still in their early 20s. Since then there has been somewhat of a fall from grace for the pair with everything from injuries to form to off field indiscretions blocking what seemed to be a path to a decade of world class play for club and country for the dynamic duo. However, all that intervening mess, even the news of Genia’s impending departure, was forgotten. This was 2011 again and the pair were dominating the game, Cooper’s creativity and invention perfectly complimenting Genia’s accuracy and control. It was the latter who setup The Reds two tries, first with a expertly timed ball to James Horwill who crashed over (more on him in a minute…), then catching The Rebels defence short by appearing to go right before giving it to Liam Gill who crashed past Nic Stirzaker before offloading smartly to Jake Schatz who went over.
It was all going perfectly for The Reds until the 20th minute and a moment of madness from former Wallaby captain (!!!!) James Horwill, whose swinging arm caught Paul Alo-Emile in the jaw. It was an absurdly stupid move from someone so experienced and one that, after a very short referral to the TMO, saw the second row sent for an early shower. Maybe at the start of Horwill’s career such play wouldn’t have been deemed worthy of a straight red, but it was good to see such swift a decisive action from the referee in a sport that is sadly lagging behind the where it should be in how it deals with blows to the head.
With Horwill off the game changed swiftly and decisively and The Rebels took advantage of the extra man well, first using a driving maul from a lineout to take advantage of the extra man they had in the forwards, while later in the half stretching The Reds defence from one touchline to the other before eventually crossing with Tom English in the 31st minute. At this point the game was finely poised at 15-15 and would remain so for another 35 minutes until Nic Stirzaker crossed, with Mike Harris rounding out the scoring with a penalty five minutes later. However, it was in these scoreless minutes that The Rebels really won the game, methodically controlling possession and territory, while moving through the phases and wearing down The Reds. By the end of the game they had about 70% possession and had dominated territory as well, illustrating the control and discipline that has made them a much more competitive side in this year’s competition. If there has been one major shortcoming of The Rebels so far, it has been their lack of game breakers however, in Sefanaia Naivalu, they may just have found someone capable of adding that cutting edge. The Fijian racked up a mind-blowing 192m on Friday night, beating defenders and breaking the line consistently when given decent opportunities, while also setting up Stirzaker’s try with some brilliant acceleration and a lovely offload. For The Reds, they toiled bravely with 14 men, with Liam Gill in particular looking like the player who was challenging Michael Hooper for a Wallaby jersey just 18 months ago. But it was in the 54th minute that they received their real sucker punch, Cooper staggering off after once again damaging his shoulder. He is expected to miss 2 months, or the vast majority of what remains of the season from hell for The Reds. He should still be in the picture for the World Cup, but really who knows given his recent injury history. That, combined with the Genia news means the bad times keep rolling for The Reds, their opponents on the night though continue to show signs of growing confidence.
A.C.T. Brumbies vs Free State Cheetahs
Score: 20-3; Venue: Canberra Stadium
The Brumbies had faced The Cheetahs six times in Canberra in total. They had won six times. It was with that similar feeling of inevitability that this iteration of the fixture played out. The Brumbies scored early, with Christian Lealiifano once again showing off the more physical edge he is playing with this season to compliment his otherwise skill-based game, stepping inside before crashing past some admittedly weak Cheetahs defence. For the rest of the first 30 minutes, The Brumbies looked fantastic, with Scott Sio and David Pocock in particular consistently getting over the gain-line, while Robbie Coleman looked a constant threat when returning kicks. In the lead up to the game much had been made of Henry Speight shifting into outside centre in Tevita Kurandrani’s absence and Speight repaid both the hype and the coaching staff with some electrifying linebreaks and strong carries. He has always run very good lines off both 9 and 10 when on the wing and continued this trend from his new position, helping to set up Lealiifano’s try by sucking in defenders with a powerful crash ball run on the previous phase. However, as The Brumbies continued to make good use of quick tempo throughout the half in attack, they seemed to get bogged down more and more inside The Cheetahs 22, failing to add to their try tally before half time at which point the scores read 13-3, thanks to a Joe Pietersen penalty before two in reply from the tryscorer.
In the second half, The Brumbies did finally go over again, this time keeping things more simple with a methodical set of pick and drives eventually leading to Blake Enever getting his first Super Rugby try. At this point, rather than go for the kill and chance the four try bonus point, The Brumbies seemed happy to rest on their laurels and with a defence that was once again rock solid who can blame them. They kicked more where earlier in the game they were happy going through the phases and were able to soak up what The Cheetahs threw at them. One other point of note from this game is that with Pocock healthy (fingers firmly crossed….) and playing in a back row with Jarrad Butler and Scott Fardy, The Brumbies have a superb defensive backrow. All three are rock solid in the tackle and have the workrate and finesse to cause havoc at the breakdown so, while scoring 20 points and then essentially giving up on attacking may seem like a foolish plan given how much firepower some teams in this competition have, for these Brumbies, 20 might be more than enough.
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