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'Stoked': Brumbies captain reflects on historic victory in Christchurch
By Henry Lee
The ACT Brumbies headed to Christchurch, having last won against the Crusaders at that venue in 2000, looking for a historic victory on veteran prop James Slipper’s 200th Super Rugby Pacific appearance.
Win they did, comfortably in fact, securing a famous 50-24 victory at Apollo Projects Stadium on Sunday afternoon in Christchurch.
The defending champions started on the back foot during the first half, as the Brumbies began the game with the strong wind at their backs.
After a back-and-forth first 40 minutes, Stephen Larkham’s side went into the changing rooms leading 19 points to five, with Slipper and impressive young loose-forward Charlie Cale crossing the white line with tries in the last ten minutes.
The away side then took it to the Crusaders in the second half, utilising an effective running game paired with strong carries up front from their forwards. Three tries in the last ten minutes ballooned the lead out to 26, handing the Crusaders their second loss in a matter of weeks.
Brumbies captain Ryan Lonergan was exceptional around the park, and said after the match that he couldn’t be prouder of his side.
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“Yes, stoked, super proud and to be able to do it on Jimmy’s 200th, makes it even more special. So, yeah the boys are absolutely stoked with that,” Lonergan told reporters in Christchurch.
“Something we’ll probably remember for the rest of our lives.”
Lonergan felt that their game plan worked, which created a number of opportunities throughout the game that they were able to take advantage of.
“We just stuck to our game really, the first half was pretty good and we had to work exceptionally hard in that first 20 minutes, we had a lot of ball, and they defended really well.
“They put us under a lot of pressure, but we knew that if we stuck with it, that opportunities would come and they eventually did probably more than we thought.
“So in that second half, it started to loosen up a little bit more, and we scored some great points, we knew they were going to come back, so it was quite tough to exit there in that second half with the wind.
“Super proud of how the boys sort of managed that game, and managed that discipline quite well and put us in a good spot.”
The Brumbies captain was quick to give praise to the unsung hero of their backline, Andy Muirhead, who played a massive part in the historic victory in Christchurch.
“Yeah really good today, had a cracker today and that’s probably leads into why we didn’t have to exit too much, was because of how well he counter attacks for us and sort of controlled the back.
“He’s very elusive, not many people talk about him and yeah, he’s just doesn’t look like much on anything, but he does some stuff that’s pretty incredible, and he did that again this afternoon.”
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