Updated ,first published
Super Round continued to be anything but for Australian teams in Christchurch after the Reds lost to the Blues in a golden point heartbreaker and the Brumbies were thrashed by the Hurricanes, completing a winless weekend.
Chasing a rare clean sweep of wins over all five Kiwi teams in a single season, the Brumbies did not even get close to making history in a one-sided 45-12 win by the Canes.
In the second game of the double-header at One New Zealand Stadium, the Reds put up a brave fight against the Aucklanders after falling behind early, and they scored in the last minute to level scores and push the game into extra time.
But Kiwi referee James Doleman whistled up a contentious penalty against Fraser McReight for an illegal breakdown entry a few minutes in, and Beauden Barrett nailed a penalty for a 36-33 win.
McReight argued the Blues attacker had already knocked the ball at the ruck on by the time he attempted a pilfer but his pleas fell of deaf ears.
A night after the Waratahs were blown off the same park, the defeats rounded out a sorry weekend for Australian teams, whose similar weaknesses were exposed by the more ruthless Kiwi sides.
Lineouts were worryingly dire across the board, particularly when on the attack in their opponent’s red zone. with the success rate of the Waratahs (64 per cent), Brumbies (69 per cent) and the Reds (71 per cent) all proving to be lethal to their hopes of converting pressure into points.
The Reds fought hard to rally back from 21-7 and level scores at 21-all, but they lost three straight lineouts in their rival’s quarter and midway through the second half. It stopped the Reds going ahead and potentially sealing a win, and the Blues came back and scored twice to push away on the scoreboard.
Led by Harry Wilson, Jock Campbell and Filipo Daugunu, Queensland’s courage saw them fight back yet again, with tries to Tim Ryan and Werchon. But after receiving the ball in extra time, the Reds had the tough task of escaping their territory and the Blues patiently waited for a penalty from Doleman.
Like the Tahs, the Brumbies’ lineout was just one of many problems in their worst performance of the year, with an error-strewn display of poor kicking, defensive lapses and pushed passes helping the Canes run up a big score.
Hurricanes winger Fehi Fineanganofo bagged a first-half hat-trick, and finished with four tries.
The New Zealand side was outstanding in defence and in stifling the Brumbies at the breakdown, and the visitors duly did not build any attacking momentum.
And when the Brumbies tried to kick their way into good position, they failed terribly – particularly in the opening half, when balls were kicked dead or into the arms of Hurricanes counter-attackers.
Declan Meredith was hooked at half-time after kicking two balls dead from penalties when attacking lineouts may have begun a fightback.
The Hurricanes led 19-0 at the break, but the second-half performance was even worse from the Brumbies. The Canes were far hungrier and the visitors fell away badly in the last quarter.
By the end of the game, the Brumbies had missed a staggering 48 tackles. Two second-half tries were in the consolation category only.
“Our kicking wasn’t where it needed to be, coming out of our end, but also some kicks in their end,” Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham said.
“There were four kicks that went dead, two from penalties and then two out of hand. I thought they put a lot of pressure on with the breakdown.
“We certainly had our chances in that first half inside their 22, with a couple of lineouts. I guess that was probably one area that struggled today, just our lineouts. So we’ll review that and make sure that we’re better in that space.
“It’s disappointing – we’ve come over here with pretty big expectations. We had a good fan support group come over here as well. The game blew out at the end. We were chasing the game at the back end there.”
It is the third defeat for the Brumbies in their past four games, and they are struggling for form at the wrong end of the season. Asked if they’d gone backwards, Larkham conceded the ACT side was not trending in the right direction.
“Every team is getting better as the competition goes on and, yeah, I think the results maybe would indicate, particularly the last two weeks, that we’ve gone backwards,” Larkham said. “But we’ll go through the same process again, drown out the external noise and make sure that we’re focused internally this weekend.”
The Brumbies will be without veteran prop Allan Alaalatoa against the Reds next week, however, after losing him before the game with a concussion suffered at training.
Larkham also has to handle the badly dented confidence of Meredith, but the coach believes his playmaker will be able to bounce back.
“He’s had games like this before where things haven’t quite gone his way. There’s other aspects of the game that were pretty good, right? Just two kicks there,” Larkham said.
“He takes a lot of responsibility for the outcome of that game on the back of those two kicks. And, yeah, there’s big moments in the game that 10s are responsible for and he’s used to that pressure. He bounces back quickly.”
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