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Brumbies ruin Western Force homecoming party
The Brumbies have ruined the Western Force’s long-awaited homecoming by securing a 27-11 Super Rugby AU win in Perth.
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It had been 1,316 days since the Force had last played a Super game in Perth, but tries from Brumbies flyhalf Noah Lolesio, inside centre Irae Simone, and replacement Issak Fines-Leleiwasa set up a match-winning 27-6 lead in Friday’s opener.
The Force scored a late try to deny the Brumbies a bonus point.
“You’ve got to be proud of the boys going for it, and then we defended the other side of the field not to let them score,” Brumbies captain Allan Ala’alatoa told Channel 9 when asked about the missed bonus point.
“You’ve got to be proud of the boys’ efforts. We were under pressure away from home.”
The Force suffered a pre-match blow when centre Kyle Godwin was ruled out with an ankle injury.
But they had a pretty handy replacement up their sleeve – World Cup-winning All Black Richard Kahui.
The Force hit the lead early with a penalty, but captain Ian Prior fluffed the chance to put his team 6-0 up when his close-range effort hit the post in the 14th minute.
The miss proved to be costly, with the Brumbies levelling the scores shortly after, before Lolesio made the most of a defensive lapse to score the first try of the match in the 21st minute.
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Lolesio was able to stroll over untouched after scrumhalf Nic White picked the ball up from a breakdown and moved swiftly to his left to open up the gap for his teammate.
The Force committed 10 penalties in the first half, gifting the Brumbies field position time and again.
The home side almost scored a try in the 33rd minute, but the TMO found the ball had fallen short of the line.
The most spectacular moment of the first half came when Force flyhalf Jono Lance unleashed a cross-field kick.
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Force winger Byron Ralston caught the ball one-handed while squeezed up on the sideline, and he dribbled the ball forward while being tackled.
An outrageous one-handed catch from @westernforce flyer Byron Ralston from a near-perfect @jonno_lance crossfield kick #FORvBRU #SuperRugbyAU
Credit: @StanSportAU pic.twitter.com/FTtkyyvfqM
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 19, 2021
The attacking move eventually led to a penalty, but the Brumbies replied on the stroke of halftime to take a 13-6 lead into the break.
The Force were in a deep hole at 20-6 down early in the second half when Brumbies outside centre Len Ikitau broke through a tackle and dished off a sweet offload to set up Simone for a try.
An untimely knock-on denied Brumbies scrumhalf Nic White just a metre before the line a short time later, letting the Force off the hook.
And when Brumbies prop James Slipper was given a yellow card in the 59th minute for bringing down a rolling maul, the Force sniffed an opening.
But the Brumbies held firm with 14 men, and then sealed the win in the 71st minute when they swept it wide from a scrum for Fines-Leleiwasa to score.
Textbook from the Brumbies ? #FORvBRU #SuperRugbyAU pic.twitter.com/rVdaqgqP6C
— Stan Sport (@StanSportAU) February 19, 2021
The Force at least gave the crowd of 7,514 something to cheer about when Argentinian international Tomas Cubelli sneaked through a gap to score a 76th minute try and deny the Brumbies a bonus point in the process.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments