April 14 (Reuters) – ACT Brumbies blew the Melbourne Rebels
away with four first-half tries before running out 37-6 winners
in Canberra to cement their position at the top of the
Australian Super Rugby conference on Saturday.
Two tries from Scott Fardy as well as scores from Pat
McCabe, Michael Hooper and Ben Mowen gave the Brumbies a bonus
point victory to resume their revival under coach Jake White
after defeats in their last two outings.
The Rebels had been looking to back up their shock win over
the Auckland Blues last week but their defence was poor and the
talented backline trio of Danny Cipriani, James O’Connor and
Kurtley Beale were given few chances to show their skills.
“We weren’t happy with the way we played last week,”
Brumbies skipper Mowen said in a pitchside interview. “We needed
to get across the gainline before we went out wide and in the
first 40 minutes we built that platform.”
Wallaby centre McCabe opened the floodgates when he ran
straight through an O’Connor tackle to score under the posts in
the 18th minute but it was two tries in two minutes soon
afterwards that broke the Rebels.
First openside flanker Hooper powered through three tacklers
to touch down in the 24th minute before O’Connor was caught in
possession with lock Fardy bulldozing his way across the line
from the resultant turnover.
Rebels skipper Gareth Delve was sin-binned for a deliberate
foul just after the half hour mark and he was still sitting on
the touchline when another McCabe break gave flanker Mowen the
fourth try three minutes before halftime.
The Rebels tightened things up in the second half but were
unable to breach the twice-champions’ line as a combination of
errors and strong Brumbies defence stymied their efforts leaving
them with just two wins from seven matches this season.
Fardy added his second try with another tackle-busting run
13 minutes from time but by that stage the destiny of the spoils
was in no doubt.
Continued…
