Quade Cooper yesterday kicked a penalty goal after the final siren to give the Queensland Reds a 16-15 Super Rugby victory over Australian conference leaders the ACT Brumbies in Brisbane.
The Reds, playing at home for the last time this season, fought back from 15-6 down for much of the second half for only their fourth win of a miserable season.
In foggy, wet conditions, the Brumbies looked set to again dominate the Reds with a penalty try and a try to center Kyle Godwin to lead by nine points up until eight minutes from full time.
However, a first Super Rugby try to youngster Hamish Stewart off a final ball from 36-year-old former Wallaby flanker George Smith gave the Reds renewed hope into the final minutes.
Karmichael Hunt kicked the Reds deep into Brumbies territory, and from a scrum win Queensland earned a penalty under the posts for Wallaby flyhalf Cooper to kick the winning points.
Cooper’s goal-kicking heroics absolved him after he was culpable for letting the Brumbies skip out in front.
The flyhalf was tackled over his own try line by Tom Banks, but did not ground the ball, inviting Godwin to pounce on it when it eventually fell loose for an easy try in the 55th minute.
Godwin’s try came shortly after George Smith was yellow-carded for collapsing a Brumbies rolling maul — the 14th time a Reds player has been sent to the sin bin this season — which resulted in the Brumbies’ penalty try.
The loss was the Brumbies’ eighth of the season, yet they have still qualified for the Super Rugby finals as Australian conference champions, regardless of the remaining results.
“After the season we’ve had, it’s just nice to have a win for everyone at the club and for the fans,” Reds skipper Stephen Moore said.
“Obviously, it took to the last minute to get the win, but I’m proud of the team. It was tough conditions, but we hung in and believed in each other right till the end,” he added.
Brumbies captain Sam Carter said his team had made mistakes at crucial times.
“It was pretty disappointing. We had a lot of opportunities to close out the game, but we made silly mistakes at crucial times and we’ve only got ourselves to blame,” Carter said.
During the match the Brumbies became only the second Super Rugby side behind New Zealand’s Canterbury Crusaders (9,435 points) to reach the 8,000-point milestone in the history of the tournament.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke, 29, has died, the NBA team said in a statement on Tuesday, while the family of Jason Collins, the first openly gay man to play in a major US pro sports league, announced the former Grizzlies and Brooklyn Nets player had died after a battle with brain cancer. “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brandon Clarke,” the Grizzlies said in a statement posted on social media. “Brandon was an outstanding teammate and an even better person whose impact on the organization and the greater Memphis community will not be forgotten.” The statement did not provide
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS