Australian Super Rugby Grades - Week Three

Whilst the weather wreaks havoc with the sport in Europe, there were no such problems in the Southern Hemisphere – although the Brumbies might have wished for some intervention from somewhere. Here are how the Australian teams fared in Week 3 of Super Rugby:

REDS – B

This was a great response from the young Reds outfit after the thrashing they took at the hands of the Rebels. Their defence was rock solid which will please Brad Thorn as he collected his first win as a Super Rugby coach. Their forwards really fronted up and put the Brumbies under severe pressure at Set Piece time. There were frailties and they lacked a cutting edge but six penalties saw them home.

BRUMBIES – E

No sugar coating it, this was a poor result for the men from the capital. Up until last season they had gone on a run of 5 consecutive wins against the Queenslanders but on Friday night they were second best pretty much everywhere. The forwards, where their strength traditionally lies, were bullied by the front 5 from the Reds and their backs looked void of ideas most of the match. That is 2 games against teams tipped to be towards the bottom of the table and they have only taken 4 points when they should have been looking at 10.

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REBELS – B

This may be harsh to give them a B considering they recorded their biggest ever away victory. The records are tumbling for the Rebels in the first couple of weeks but, this could have been even more emphatic. The score line at half time was 10-10 and this was mainly because the Rebels tried to rush things and made too many mistakes. They appeared to go back to their game plan in the second half and scored some great tries off of set moves and gained their second consecutive bonus point win.

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WARATAHS – B

Once again the Waratahs left it late. Bernard Foley kicked a 76^th minute conversion to earn them a good draw in Durban. Keegan Daniel will never want to see Michael Hooper’s try again after knocking on a quick throw to himself. Not many teams win in Durban so to come away with something is a huge positive. Their next game is away in Buenos Aires where they will be looking to continue their unbeaten start to the season.

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Waratahs come from behind to pick up draw