Brave Brumbies unable to crack Chiefs' D in Hamilton
The ACT Brumbies' Super Rugby Pacific season is once again over in heartbreaking fashion, beaten 19-6 in a tight semi-final by the Chiefs in Hamilton.
They never led, lost both territory and possession and were often camped on their line but somehow took the game down to the wire only to fall short of a history-making win.
The final will once again be an all-New Zealand affair, the Chiefs' stellar defence to face off with the Crusaders' potent attack after they beat the Blues 52-15 on Friday night.
It continues the perfect record of Kiwi teams hosting Australian sides in finals, and it's the second time in as many years the Brumbies have exited in a semi-final across the ditch.
Chiefs' five-eighth Damian McKenzie nailed all four of his penalty goal attempts, including a bomb from the half-way line on 72 minutes to gain a six-point advantage.
The All Blacks star was then instrumental in landing the knockout blow, creating the line break that would end with a pick-and-go try for lock Brodie Retallick two minutes from time.
Brumbies playmaker Noah Lolesio slotted two penalty goals, but perhaps his side will be wondering how different the game would have been if they'd opted to kick for another and try to tie things up while down 9-6, instead of kicking for the corner and looking for the lead.
Starting five-eighth Jack Debreczeni, who left early for Lolesio after an HIA, missed a simple penalty goal attempt when down 3-0, another small moment the Brumbies would be regretting in hindsight.
They weren't helped by a controversial knock-on call against them while deep in Chiefs territory inside the final quarter-hour, what looked a strip by Pita Gus Sowakula ruled an ACT error to make them sacrifice vital ground.
They went to halftime riding the high of a monstrous goal-line stand, spending more than five minutes camped deep in their own territory only to dig in and hit the sheds only trailing 6-3.
An abso lute brain fade from fullback Tom Wright gifted the C hiefs another chance for points, kicking a goal-line dropout straight to an opposition player when finding touch would have ended the first half.
The Brumbies played the territ ory game more than they normally would and kicked at will in opportunities where they'd usually run. They lost that battle to a virtuoso performance from McKenzie who controlled the game with his boot and exploited space left in behind the back three.
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What’s new its a common occurrence, just the journos out there expecting a negative spin. The outcome will be beneficial to jordie and Leinster. The home grown lads hav got some experience to step up to and be more competitive, that or spend the 6 months keeping the bench warm.
Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
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