Brumbies Rugby

This weekend, Jake White’s Brumbies travel to Waikato with a favourable shot at redemption as they look to prevent the Chiefs from winning back-to-back Super Rugby silverware.

Last season saw the Canberra franchise miss out on the playoffs by just a single point as South African clubs claimed three places in the postseason fixtures to Australia's solitary spot.

This campaign ran a slightly different course, however. White’s side look far superior to that of a year ago, even with the notable absence of the mercurial David Pocock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv_XIO6yacE

Managing to obtain a third-place finish in the table, this term saw the Brumbies impress in a way not seen by their fans for some time, unluckily missing out on a top-two placement.

Such is the impact made by White, who led South Africa to the World Cup in 2007. Upon taking over the side in 2011, the Brumbies had just come off the back of their worst Super Rugby campaign: to imagine that two years later the same side would be in the Grand Final of the competition seemed laughable.

However, White has replenished his outfit with a certain sense of belief, one lacking since their title successes in 2001 and 2004 and three unsuccessful final appearances around the same time.

It's exactly that feeling within the squad which Clyde Rathbone tweeted about following last weekend's major victory:

There are not many question marks hanging over the standard of the visitors’ squad. Packed to the rafters with international quality, the Brumbies back-row is particularly strong.

George Smith, Ben Mowen and Peter Kimlin are about as fierce a threesome as you can find in Super Rugby and will be a tough unit to overcome at the breakdown.

Factor in the talents of Christian Lealiifano, Joe Tomane, Stephen Moore, Jesse Mogg and other Wallaby stars and the gap between them and the Chiefs begins to seem minimal.

In his coaching staff, White has recruited Stephen Larkham and Laurie Fisher, both of whom were part of the franchise (in different capacities) around that time of storming success.

The Australians will now look to defy the odds against their New Zealand counterparts, who only finished six points ahead of the Brumbies in the regular season.

Beating the Bulls in last-minute fashion last week showed the resilience the Brumbies possess as a team, something they’ll need to recall this weekend if they’re to pull another underdog upset out of the bag.

This fixture is somewhat of an unknown. The sides did not meet in this regular season—March 2012 was their last encounter. On that occasion, it was the Chiefs who emerged as victors before going on to secure the Super Rugby title months later.

Coincidentally enough, the last three British and Irish Lions hosts have all won the Super Rugby title of that season, per Fox Sports' Iain Payten: Bulls (2009), Crusaders (2005), Brumbies (2001). Twelve years later and the Brumbies will hope to keep that particular tradition alive against the tournament favourites.

There’s no question that White and his men have an uphill struggle on their hands—but last week’s meeting in Pretoria shows what this Brumbies side have in their locker when it comes to overcoming the odds.

After an uninspiring opening to their French tour (losing their first two matches) the Brumbies, with some Wallabies back on deck, defeated the current Top 14 champions, USA Perpignan.

At the Stade Aimé Giral, located at the southern point of France, the Brumbies put in a vastly improved performance, and defeated the seven-time French domestic champions on the back of a stubborn defensive performance and upped physicality that was missing in their first two matches.

Patrick Phibbs scored the opening try of the match, capitalising on a Brumbies turnover in their own half to run unopposed to shock the home team.

After leading 10-0 at halftime, an admittedly weakened Perpignan side turned up the pressure launching wave after wave of attack.

The Top 14 champions coach, Jacques Brunel, built his side last year as a multi-dimensional offensive team.  Against the Australians, a heady mix of running rugby and forward drives showed their capability with the ball in hand.

However the Brumbies, even without scrumhalf Josh Valentine, who was sin-binned midway through the match, tackled like men possessed. 

Even though the Brumbies defensive systems were missing in action throughout the Super 14, being the fifth worst defensive side in the competition, Brumbies coach Tony Rea certainly had his troops up for this match.

The home team would not score a single point, and went down 17-0 to a Brumbies side that came seventh in this year’s Super 14 (winning eight and losing five).

Naturally, Rea was proud of his men.

“The guys prepared well and had their heads on for what was a tough match,” he said.

“We learned where we needed to be physically from the first two games and we were able to bully them on the ball and we were rewarded for it. We realised that we needed to win every collision for the 80 minutes, we did and we got the result.”

“This tour has been a very demanding one. There’s been a lot of travel, many sleepless nights and limited opportunities for training but tonight the team showed a lot of character. Tonight the tough times on the field moulded the team as a group rather than broke them.”

The Brumbies lost their first match of the tour with a 20-12 loss to CS Bourgoin-Jallieu at Stade Pierre Rajon, and followed this up with a disappointing 37-21 loss to Aviron Bayonnais.

The sojourn so far has proved to be beneficial for the Brumbies, despite rumblings from some parties back home that the franchise did the current Australian domestic competitions, such as the Canberra based John I Dent Cup, no favours by taking the Brumbies overseas.

Their final match will be against RC Toulonnais (Toulon) at the Stade Mayol on Thursday.

There were 12 first-choice players missing from the Perpignan side, in what was effectively their first match of the 2009/10 season.

 

Brumbies 17 (Patrick Phibbs, Ben Hand tries; Christian Lealiifano 2 conversions, penalty goal) defeated USA Perpignan 0

Brumbies: 1. Jerry Yanuyanutawa, 2. Nathan Charles, 3. Salesi Ma’afu, 4. Ben Hand, 5. Peter Kimlin, 6. Henry Vanderglas, 7. Colby Faingaa, 8. Stephen Hoiles (c), 9. Josh Valentine, 10. Christian Lealiifano, 11. Francis Fainifo, 12. Tyrone Smith, 13. Andrew Smith, 14. Alfi Mafi, 15. Pat McCabe

Reserves: 16. Anthony Hegarty, 17. Guy Shepherdson, 18. Sitaleki Timani, 19. Sokai Tai, 20. Patrick Phibbs, 21. Matt Toomua, 22. Shaun Foley, 23. Robbie Coleman, 24. Afusipa Taumoepeau, 25. Nic White, 26. Ed Gower

The USA Perpignan squad for the Brumbies match: Freshwater, Chobet, Bourrust, Brison, Schuster, Geli, Tincu, Britz, Olibeau, Alvarez-Kairélis, Vilaceca, Vivalda, Guiry, Tuilagi, Perez, Durand, Cazenave, Hume, Laharrague, Grandclaude, Marty, Manas, Candelon, Porical, Burger, Michel, Battle