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Chiefs bust late deadlock to down Brumbies in Hamilton
By AAP
The ACT Brumbies have fallen painfully short once again in another high-scoring Super Rugby Pacific thriller in Hamilton.
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Despite running in six tries, the Brumbies walked away from FMG Waikato Stadium with nothing tangible to show for their enterprise and endeavour after suffering a 49-34 loss to the table-topping Chiefs on Saturday.
The heartbreaker follows a 45-42 defeat to the Western Force in another 12-try extravaganza last Saturday night in Canberra.
The sapping loss also somewhat soured celebrations for veteran hooker James Slipper, who joined Aaron Smith as Super Rugby’s most-capped player with his 185th appearance.
But there were wide smiles everywhere in the Chiefs camp, none bigger than Gideon Wrampling’s after he grabbed a telling second-half try-scoring double with his first two touches of the ball.
The Brumbies deserved the halftime lead after outscoring the Chiefs three tries to two in the opening section.
All of the Brumbies’ tries, to lock Nick Frost, flyhalf Declan Meredith and speedster winger Corey Toole, came out wide after the forwards methodically drew in the Chiefs defence to create opportunities on the edges.
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But two conversions and a penalty goal from Damian McKenzie to go with quickfire tries in the space of three minutes to flyhalf Josh Jacomb and centre Anton Lienert-Brown kept the Chiefs in the game.
The Chiefs blew the game open with two more quick tries early in the second half, splitting the Brumbies’ defence right up the middle on both occasions.
First, livewire centre Quinn Tupaea reeled in his own chip kick, then Wrampling cashed in on a beautifully worked set play from a lineout to cross seconds after joining the fray.
Suddenly trailing 29-15, the Brumbies needed a spark.
Instead, they went back to their bread and butter to score from a rolling maul through Lachlan Lonergan.
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When Andy Muirhead touched down shortly after, following the Brumbies’ own lineout on halfway, the scores were all tied up again at 29-all.
But the deadlock lasted only a matter of seconds after skipper Tupou Vaa’i regained possession from the kick-off and sent Wrampling scampering down the left touchline for his second strike.
Another Chiefs penalty stretched the home side’s lead to beyond a converted try with 10 minutes remaining.
Muirhead’s second try gave the Brumbies a glimmer of hope, but the Chiefs were not to be denied, remaining unbeaten after Lienert-Brown added the cherry on top with the 12th try of the match on fulltime.
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