Wallabies winger Henry Speight scored two tries as the ACT Brumbies beat South Africa’s Northern Bulls 22-16 in a bruising contest at Canberra Stadium yesterday to stay very much in the Super XV playoff mix.
A try from replacement lock Jordan Smiler gave the home side an 8-6 edge at the break, but it took two second-half interventions from Speight to break open an arm-wrestle of a contest dominated by defense.
A 67th-minute try from loose forward Lappies Labuschagne off the back of a trademark Bulls rolling maul gave the visitors hope of a comeback victory, but the Brumbies held firm in a tense 13 minutes.
Photo: EPA
The victory lifted the Brumbies to the top of the Australian conference ahead of reigning champions the New South Wales Waratahs, who play the Lions in Johannesburg today.
Flyhalf Handre Pollard kicked three penalties and converted the try, but it was not enough to prevent the Bulls from falling to their third straight defeat on their Australasian road trip.
The twice champions will probably have to break a 10-match losing streak outside South Africa going back to March 2013 in their penultimate match of the season against the Melbourne Rebels next week to stay in the playoff hunt.
Pollard’s second penalty had given the South Africans a 6-0 lead when Smiler came on in the 24th minute for Sam Carter after the Wallabies lock suffered what looked like a serious knee injury.
Six minutes later the Brumbies finally got some sustained forward momentum and scrumhalf Nic White’s quick ball from a ruck gave Smiler the room to get over the try-line.
Pollard’s third penalty got the visitors back in front straight after the break, but four minutes later Speight took the ball at first receiver from an attacking scrum, and showed his pace and power to burst through the Bulls midfield and score.
Speight’s second try came 12 minutes later when the Brumbies got the ball out wide and the winger shrugged off the tackle of J.J. Engelbrecht to touch down.
CRUSADERS 35, HURRICANES 18
The Canterbury Crusaders kept their wafer-thin hopes of a playoff berth alive with a 35-18 win over Super XV leaders the Wellington Hurricanes in Nelson, New Zealand, yesterday.
The seven-time champions became only the second team to defeat the Hurricanes this year, but still risk missing the finals for the first time since 2001.
Inspired in attack by winger Nemani Nadolo, the Crusaders scored four tries to two, displaying the renowned dominance that has been missing for much of the season.
“Coming up against the top team, who’ve set the pace all year, we wanted to dig deep,” captain Richie McCaw said.
The bonus-point victory still leaves the Crusaders needing to win their final two matches and have other results go their way to make the playoffs.
The Hurricanes have already qualified for the finals, perhaps accounting for a lackluster display that captain Conrad Smith said was a wake-up call.
“It was disappointing, we didn’t turn up tonight,” Smith said. “They were hungrier than us and that’s not good enough.”
It was a downbeat way for the Hurricanes to mark All Black center Ma’a Nonu’s 123rd cap for the team, overtaking the record for most games set by former midfield great Tana Umaga.
The Hurricanes piled on the pressure early, but a desperate tackle from Dan Carter stopped Julian Savea just short of the try-line.
Carter, playing in his preferred flyhalf position, then gave the Crusaders the edge with three quick penalties.
They extended the lead with a try to scrumhalf Mitchell Drummond after a barnstorming run from winger Nemani Nadolo, but a red card to Robbie Fruean halted their momentum, with the Hurricanes immediately hitting back with a try by Dane Coles to cut the gap to 16-8 at the break.
Ardie Savea took just 30 seconds after the restart to give the Hurricanes another try when he took off down the right wing.
The Crusaders then seized control of the match with tries by Nafi Tuitavake and Matt Todd, the second set up with a one-handed offload from Nadolo.
After setting up two tries, Nadolo then scored one for himself, gathering a cross-field chip from Carter, then brushing off Nonu before crossing the line.
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