Brumbies Home in a Heart Stopper

A sideline conversion late in the game from captain Stirling Mortlock has lifted the ACT Brumbies to an enthralling 28-26 victory over the Chiefs this afternoon at Canberra Stadium.

After trailing for a majority of the second half the Brumbies drew level in the 70th minute when winger Mark Gerrard scored in the right hand corner and with the result hanging in the balance Mortlock came up with the biggest play of the match, slotting over a sideline conversion to give the home side four much needed Super 14 competition points.

Playing without injured star Matt Giteau, Mortlock was the man to step up in his absence scoring a try and landing 5/8 with the boot to have a haul of 18 points for the match, while Canberra’s favourite son Stephen Larkham was also instrumental in the win having a hand in all three tries that were scored.

“We held strong late in the second half and did the job which was extremely pleasing from my perspective,” said Mortlock.

“We ground it away today, but when we get our act together and play consistently for the whole game look out.”

With the spacious Canberra Stadium bathed in late afternoon sunlight the large crowd in attendance was treated to a goal kicking shootout in the opening ten minutes of the game.

Chiefs fly half Stephen Donald got scoring underway with his first penalty goal in the fourth minute, but that was quickly countered by Mortlock’s 35 metre effort which tied the game at 3-3.

Donald snuck the visitors in front again with his second penalty goal in the ninth minute and Mortlock should have answered two minutes later, but his 20 metre attempt drifted wide to leave ACT trailing 6-3.

The Brumbies captain didn’t have to wait long to atone for his miss though, scoring the first try of the game courtesy of some stellar lead up work from Larkham

The veteran fly half summed up the situation beautifully in the 16th minute throwing a sensational cutout pass which gave Mortlock plenty of space down the left hand flank and the big centre made full use of it to race away and score untouched.

After a quick celebration the he quickly collected himself and calmly slotted over the wide conversion attempt to give the home side a 10-6 lead.

The attacking play of both sides stalled somewhat over the next 15 minutes before the Chiefs finally managed to close the gap thanks to another Donald penalty goal.

The tit for tat nature of the game continued with Mortlock pushing the Brumbies advantage back out to four points heading into half time with his third penalty goal of the match (13-9).

A break from Chiefs centre Sam Tuitupou shortly after the main break had the Brumbies defense in a shambles and the visitors quickly capitalized on this with replacement prop Simms Davison crashing over in the right hand corner for their first try of the game.

Donald extended the Chiefs lead to three points with his sideline conversion, but that advantage lasted all of two minutes for the Kiwis after they were penalized soon after the kickoff and Mortlock made no mistake with his penalty shot to draw the Brumbies level at 16-16.

The game took another turn in the 49th minute when Chiefs winger Sitiveni Sivivatu beat four ACT defenders close to the line to crash over adjacent to the posts and when Donald slotted over the easy conversion shot the visitors held a handy seven point advantage (23-16).

As had been the case all match long the Brumbies answered swiftly. Mortlock knocked back the chance for an easy three points after a penalty close to the posts and chose to go for the try and his decision was vindicated when a sweeping backline move resulted in winger Clyde Rathbone diving over in the left hand corner.

Mortlock was unable to convert the wide attempt leaving the home side behind by two heading into the final quarter of the match (23-21).

Donald missed a chance to push the Chiefs lead out to five points when he saw his 53 metre penalty goal effort miss just to the left, but it mattered little as on their next foray down the field he slotted over a 20 metre field goal to put his side further ahead at 26-21.

Things looked dire for the Brumbies with a majority of the match being played down their end, but a quick fire attack with 10 minutes to go saw winger Mark Gerrard sneak over in the right hand corner to level proceedings at 26-26.

After missing his last conversion Mortlock made the necessary adjustment to slot over the sideline shot to put ACT back in front 28-26 heading into the final stages of the match.

The Chiefs had one last chance with two minutes to go, but Donald’s long range field goal attempt fell well short to hand the Brumbies the victory.

The tight two point win consolidates fourth position on the Super 14 ladder for the Brumbies, but they will have to hope for the teams around them to lose next week if they are to hold their spot as round eight sees the bye come up on their schedule.

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