Brumbies outclass the Western Force

The Brumbies have outclassed the Western Force in their debut match of the Rugby Super 14, winning 25-10 at Subiaco Oval in Perth tonight.

Man of the match, George Smith, led the Canberra based team on a scrappy night in humid conditions. Stephen Larkham was another to impress the new national coach, John Connolly, who had made the trip West for a first hand glimpse at several Wallaby stars that both teams harbour.

Subiaco is dubbed the house of pain for AFL games, for the Force though it was a House of Blue with majority of the 37,037 fans in the home Guernsey design.

The Brumbies went into the game as favourites despite a virus that tore through most of the squad this week. The visitors also boast 14 players who have previously donned the Wallaby Guernsey, while the Force had about half that number in comparison.

It took nearly 20 minutes before the deadlock was broken, Mark Chisholm was the recipient of an intercept pass on half-way, he ran 40 metres to cross the line after successfully fending off Lachlan MacKay.

Stirling Mortlock narrowly missed the conversion attempt, though seven minutes later he put over a penalty goal to extend the margin to eight.

Scott Daruda had the honours of scoring the first points for the home team, however it took two attempts at penalty goal. A second offside infringement saw flanker Julian Salvi sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes. The Brumbies held a narrow 8-3 lead at half time.

The second half began with Salvi still in the bin. A lopsided missed tackle count hurt the Force in the first half, though words of wisdom of the master coach, John Mitchell, at the break saw some momentum swing back in their favour.

Former Brumby, Scott Fava, is in the record books as the first try-scorer for the home side in the 44th minute. Daruda’s conversion put the Western Force ahead for the first time in the match 10-8.

Josh Graham had only been on the field for 10 minutes, in place of MacKay, when concussed in attempting to tackle Mark Gerrard. The stretcher was called for and held up play for several minutes, the crowd entertained themselves during the unscheduled stoppage with the Mexican wave.

The Brumbies regained the lead in the 58th minute when Joel Wilson went over in the corner. The quick-fire ball movement from the right side of the field to the left had the home team caught short on cover defense. Daruda, though, tried in vain to stop Wilson going over, however the third match official gave the green light.

A set move put Wilson over again two minutes later with the Brumbies orchestrating set plays. However, referee Stuart Dickinson called play back for a scrum. A second set-move, from the scrum, saw Matt Giteau over untouched. Mortlock converted and with 18 minutes to play the Brumbies held a comfortable 22-10 lead.

Mortlock, the Brumbies captain, ended any chance the home side had of snatching victory with a penalty goal in the 68th minute.

The Western Force have injury concerns after the first match with Josh Graham (neck) and Lachlan Mackay (knee) both likely to spend a several weeks on the sidelines after incurring heart wrenching injuries.

Captain, Nathan Sharpe, was please with his team’s performance but admitted, “there was a bit of experience there at the end, we made a few mistakes and the Brumbies capitalised on that.”

Mortlock said after the game, “It wasn’t too pretty but we’re happy to get the points.”

Next Round, the Hurricanes host the Western Force at New Plymouth on Saturday afternoon, while the Brumbies are away again, this time in South Africa for matches against the Bulls and Stormers over the next two weekends.

Earlier today, the Hurricanes defeated the Blues 37-19 in Auckland. Lome Fa'atau scored two tries in the five-try second half blitz that saw the visitors turn the 16-3 half time deficit into a commanding 18-point bonus point victory.

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