June 30 (Reuters) – The ACT Brumbies rocked the Western
Force with four first-half tries before clinging on for a 28-17
victory on Saturday to move back ahead of the Queensland Reds in
the race for the Australian Super Rugby conference title.
The Reds had pulled level with the Brumbies with a win in
Melbourne on Friday but the Canberra-based side secured the
all-important bonus point before halftime and held off a
spirited Force fightback in the second period.
The Force had been hoping to give lock Wallabies Nathan
Sharpe a winning farewell in his final home match before
retirement but a brace of tries from winger Nick Cummins and
another from lock Toby Lynn proved too little, too late.
“I thought the way we played in the first half is what we’re
capable of and we’ve just got to make sure we do it more often,”
Brumbies skipper Ben Mowen said in a pitchside interview.
“We take away five points from Perth, which is not easy to
do, and we move on to the next one.”
Brumbies winger Jesse Mogg opened the scoring after only two
minutes, fending off Force skipper David Pocock and rounding the
last defender to score in the corner.
Prop Ben Alexander was the next to cross nine minutes later
when he bulldozed through the Force defence and when flyhalf
Zack Holmes converted the Brumbies were 12-0 ahead.
Pocock’s customary fine work at the breakdown stymied a
couple of Brumbies attacks but winger Henry Speight dived across
the line in the 29th minute and Holmes added the fourth after
cutting through the home defence with a neat sidestep.
The Force came out firing after turning around 22-0 down and
started to throw the ball around to great effect with Cummins
finishing well for tries in the same corner in the 43rd and 51st
minutes.
Continued…
