{"id":10584,"date":"2012-05-06T12:52:24","date_gmt":"2012-05-06T10:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/05\/rugby-act-brumbies-seize-control-of-australian-standings\/"},"modified":"2012-05-06T12:52:24","modified_gmt":"2012-05-06T10:52:24","slug":"rugby-act-brumbies-seize-control-of-australian-standings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-act-brumbies-seize-control-of-australian-standings\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-ACT Brumbies seize control of Australian standings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocatio\/spann\">May 5 (Reuters) &#8211; The ACT Brumbies extended their lead in<br \/>\nthe Super Rugby Australian conference by grinding out a 23-6<br \/>\nvictory over the New South Wales Waratahs in Canberra on<br \/>\nSaturday.<span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Brumbies flyhalf Christian Lealiifano slotted 13 points from<br \/>\nthree penalties and conversions of tries by winger George<br \/>\nSpeight and centre Andrew Smith either side of halftime.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Brumbies moved to 35 points on the table, nine ahead of<br \/>\nthe Waratahs (26), who are now ninth overall and in danger of<br \/>\nmissing out on the top six playoffs.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Each of the three conference winners advance automatically<br \/>\nwith the three teams with the next best overall records also<br \/>\nqualifying.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We spoke about getting our spacing right and being really<br \/>\naggressive off the line and we did that well in patches,&#8221; said<br \/>\nBrumbies captain Ben Mowen. &#8220;But to keep them tryless, I thought<br \/>\nthe scrambling (defence) was the best thing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The match proved a tight struggle characterised by<br \/>\nbone-shaking collisions in the tackle, with Waratahs hooker<br \/>\nTatafu Polota-Nau twice lying prone on the ground after heavy<br \/>\nknocks. The second forced him off before halftime.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Such was the atttritional nature of the match that when the<br \/>\nhalftime hooter sounded, the only points had come from two<br \/>\npenalties apiece to Lealiifano and Waratahs&#8217; scrumhalf Brendan<br \/>\nMcKibbin.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Brumbies, however, who had made more effective use of<br \/>\ntheir possession kept the ball alive after the hooter had<br \/>\nsounded and Speight crossed after 11 phases to give them a 13-6<br \/>\nlead at the break after Lealiifano converted.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Brumbies again took advantage of the Waratahs&#8217; lapse in<br \/>\nconcentration shortly after the break when Smith crashed over<br \/>\nand with Lealiifano&#8217;s conversion the home side took a 20-6 lead.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>May 5 (Reuters) &#8211; The ACT Brumbies extended their lead in the Super Rugby Australian conference by grinding out a 23-6 victory over the New South Wales Waratahs in Canberra on Saturday. Brumbies flyhalf Christian Lealiifano slotted 13 points from three penalties and conversions of tries by winger George Speight and centre Andrew Smith either [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-10584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}