Phew. This was the victory Australian rugby had to have in Super Round.
Now we can talk about a decisive Brumbies victory 28-17 over the Highlanders and the good passages from the other Aussie sides not a landslide.
What did we learn?
1 VALETINI, BROWN, SAMU
For the opening 35 minutes, this was one of the most authoritative backrow displays of the season from an Aussie trio.
Wallaby Rob Valetini, Jahrome Brown and Pete Samu were direct with their hammering runs and physical presence.
Brown’s try was well deserved. All three made gallops in the lead-up to the rolling maul try.
Highlanders fullback Mitch Hunt felt Valetini bearing down on him when he coughed up a high kick midway through the first in the lead-up to the Nic White no try.
Between them the backrow trio threw nearly 20 strong charges and made nearly 40 tackles.
“Powerful, dynamic carries and we spoke about attacking through our defence. Valetini and Brown led the way,” delighted Brumbies coach Dan McKellar said.
He’s no backrower but prop Scotty Sio bullocked like one.
2 SUPER SUBS
You can never undervalue strong finishers.
Flanker Luke Reimer and halfback Ryan Lonergan sealed the deal.
Reimer earned a clutch penalty when he got hands on the ball when the game was delicately balanced at 23-17 with 11 minutes to play.
The sharp run from the ruckbase from Lonergan speared the Brumbies onto the attack to build the bridgehead for the game-clinching Noah Lolesio try.
3 SHREWD STRATEGY
All the Kiwi sides in 2021 and 2022 have trained to take intercepts off flat line attacks from opponents too dumb to see the risk in a long, cut out pass. They keep throwing the passes and the Kiwis keep taking seven points.
The Brumbies rarely ran a full width attack. Instead they ran shorter passing sweeps for the Lolesio try and what should have been the Tom Wright try.
4 TOM WRONG
Tom Wright instantly put himself on the 2022 blooper reel with a primary school show of arrogance.
Fall over the line as awkwardly as you like but secure the try. Nope. What about a flashy one-handed dot down for no reason.
Oops! Lost the handle. Blew the try. That’s unforgivable for a Wallaby.
All Blacks great Ma’a Nonu and Rieko Ioane have done the same thing. Can’t remember either bungling a second time which must now be Wright’s standard.
To his credit, Wright ripped in and finished with 11 runs for 55m and a smart kick or two.
5 CLASSIC BANTER
Sports Ears picked some classic Nic White banter after he ran in his no try.
He’d clearly knocked on in the disputed ball lead-up.
Referee Ben O’Keeffe whistled the try but changed his call quickly when viewing the big screen.
O’Keeffe: “Why didn’t you tell me you knocked on?”
White: “I needed the breather.”
