Mortlock breaks record as Brumbies open with a win
By Justin Chadwick, 13 Feb 2010 Justin Chadwick is a Roar Pro
Brumbies veteran Stirling Mortlock became the first player in Super rugby to breach the 1000-point barrier in his side’s 24-15 opening round win over the Western Force in Perth on Friday night.
Mortlock booted three conversions and a penalty for the Brumbies as they overcame the golden boot of James O’Connor and a dogged but injury-prone Force.
O’Connor nailed his first five penalties to keep the Force within touch after the Brumbies made a bright start to the contest with two first-half tries to Stephen Moore and Josh Valentine.
But with the Force trailing 17-15 in the 70th minute, the 19-year-old Connor couldn’t live up to his earlier efforts, missing his first penalty of the night from 36m out on a slight angle.
It was a reprieve the Brumbies made the most of, swinging the ball to the other end of the ground where substitute hooker Huia Edmonds touched down near the corner after shaking off O’Connor’s desperate tackle just three metres from the line.
Mortlock nailed the conversion to make it 24-15 in the 72nd minute and the former Wallabies skipper produced a try-saving but possibly slightly high tackle minutes later after the Force made a promising break to ensure his team held on to victory.
The Western Force’s injury curse struck hard before kick-off, with five-eighth Mark Bartholomeusz, filling in for the injured Andre Pretorius, ruled out with a neck complaint and winger Cameron Shepherd straining his quad during the warm-up.
But the Brumbies were also dealt a blow when Wallabies skipper Rocky Elsom failed a late fitness test on his hamstring.
O’Connor’s hot boot kept the Force in touch during the first half as the Brumbies, dubbed the ‘Real Madrid’ of the competition due to their star-studded line-up, flexed their attacking muscle early.
Brumbies prop Ben Alexander made a surprise break in the 11th minute after a neat pass from Mortlock opened up the Force defence and it was ex-Force playmaker Valentine that crossed with ease.
O’Connor nailed a penalty in the 18th minute to make it 7-3 but the Force defence was again left wanting two minutes later when Adam Ashley-Cooper sprinted through a massive gap to set up hooker Moore for the Brumbies’ second try of the night.
However, the brilliance of O’Connor in open play and his deadly accuracy with the boot kept the scores tight, nailing three more penalties for the half to reduce the deficit to two by the break.
Mortlock and O’Connor traded penalties early in the second half as the home side’s defences started to dominate but the Force missed two chances to go ahead, a 53m penalty attempt from Brett Sheehan and O’Connor’s late miss.
All of the Force’s points came through O’Connor’s boot but the Perth-based franchise will be desperately hoping Bartholomeusz’s neck injury isn’t serious after his replacement, Sam Harris, had a shocker.
The Force will also be sweating on the fitness of Wallabies No.8 Richard Brown, who injured his right shoulder during a crunching tackle in the second half.
Force coach John Mitchell confirmed Bartholomeusz was likely to miss two to three weeks.
“We’ve had a wretched five days of injuries with Andre, Barty and Shep all pulling up short,” Mitchell said.
“We dogged that in big time.
“We were in the contest for a long time.
“We didn’t have possession for long enough periods … (but) when Jimmy had a kick on goal we were right in that match.”
Brumbies coach Andy Friend said his team were almost made to pay dearly for their lack of discipline.
“Yeah lots to work on still but very lucky to get the four points,” Friend said.
“I thought we started well, scored two reasonable tries, but then probably sat back.
“We knew the Force were a tenacious team and they kept coming us.
“We then lost our discipline, lost our structure and a bit of shape.”
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Lee said | February 13th 2010 @ 5:15am | Report comment
The friday night results showed one thing, brumbies are going to have to play a lot better to prove that they are actually title contenders and can mix it with the likes of the canes and bulls.
Force brumbies game also showed why rugby is suffering in australia, boring and dull game compared to the other 2, I hope the waratahs reds game is better
Peter said | February 13th 2010 @ 9:16am | Report comment
If they Brumbies had a fly-half that could
a) Kick
b) Run
c) Pass
d) Catch
I’d say they would have run up 40. I will never understand why people speak so highly of Toomua – every time I have seen him play it has been shocking. At least we found out that Lealifano is a pretty damn good 12 (which is more than can be said for him at 10. If Giteau is fit next week the Brumbies could well win (the Bulls defence last night was atrocious). If he isn’t then I’d bargain the Bulls will win by 50.
One thing is for sure; you knew you were watching Week 1.
Lee said | February 13th 2010 @ 3:28pm | Report comment
When you are playing a team that you have no problem scoring against your defense can suffer.
tarpo said | February 14th 2010 @ 9:13am | Report comment
Peter,
You could say the same thing about the Force.
How bad was Sam Harris? He made Toomua look like Dan Carter!!
pothale said | February 13th 2010 @ 5:34am | Report comment
Well the Cheetahs v Bulls game had lots of scoring in it, and lots of penalties.
Odd game. Stu Dickinson rules with an iron rod in one game, and Kaplan let it all flow in another, though not so much at the breakdown as by missing/ignoring what were at least 10 forward passes from which at least three tries were scored – dreadful officiating.
The Bulls look like the force to be reckoned with all the same. The cheetahs defence went missing on a few occasions and the Bulls were scoring for fun.
The odd bit was when the lights went out at the stadium during the second half. they never quite came back on fully and the players had to play in the gloom on one side of the pitch making it difficult to see the high balls and positions. It’s very evident from the players’ long shadows cast on the pitch in one direction. Poor lighting standard at this level.
mitzter said | February 13th 2010 @ 6:54am | Report comment
I thought the first half was entertaining enough, I just lost it a bit in the second.
Force almost won with goal kicking and never once looked like they were going to score a try – BORING! They need to do something about that (missed kicks – scrum were it was kicked etc or 2 pts outside the 22 etc). I didn’t watch the other games but the sheer number of PGs and PG attempts in them is also disgraceful.
Didn’t understand all the scrum penalties against the head and is still a sore point of the game (teams need to be taught how to stay up properly rather than the all-out push and it not moving, collapse)
With the new interpretation of the laws it seems Aus sides have reverted back to not committing at the breakdown – I don’t think NZ will give up their newly developed counter rucking skills so easily and we will get smashed off the park by them.
Colin N said | February 13th 2010 @ 7:48am | Report comment
“I thought the first half was entertaining enough, I just lost it a bit in the second.
Force almost won with goal kicking and never once looked like they were going to score a try – BORING!”
Maybe, if the Brumbies stopped infringing in kickable positions, the Force would have scored tries?
mitzter said | February 13th 2010 @ 8:21am | Report comment
No Colin, I don’t believe a penalty given 55m out is deserving of any points whatsoever and i don’t believe they were about to score tries. You get improved field position if your opponent infringes back there NOT points
Lee said | February 13th 2010 @ 8:52am | Report comment
Kicking penalties is a skill, these guys are all pros and know what they are doing. You give away a penalty to disrupt the opposition then you deserve to give away 3 points regardless of where it is.
Why do people act as though kicking penalties from outside the 22 is a new thing?
mitzter said | February 13th 2010 @ 10:00am | Report comment
oh i don’t think it is a new thing, penalty goals have been around for many years. Kickers just weren’t as good back then and the balls so light so you didn’t have 15 penalty shots a game around the halfway line. It’s boring, plain and simple!
Lee if you think you should get 3 points no matter where it is, maybe we should have automatic points and see the whole team play not just 1 or 2 players
Lee said | February 13th 2010 @ 3:24pm | Report comment
Reducing penalties worth won’t stop teams offending, arguably raising their worth will. Don Clarke could kick penalties for the abs from 60 m out and the rules didn’t change.
If a team is willing to concede penalties in an effort to reorganize their defence. Then their opposition should be able to kick them over. The best way to stop it isn’t to create a cheats charter as long as you’re outside the opp 22.
Why is there suddenly one ‘right’ way to play rugby. If the rules mean nothing to a side then they should pay for it. The blues learnt a tough lesson last night, it’s a pity the brumbies didn’t.
mitzter said | February 13th 2010 @ 4:51pm | Report comment
Was Don Clark the one who did cause the rules to change with the introduction of the free kick? Because he was regularly scoring 5 penalties a match.
oh a paltry 5
Colin N said | February 13th 2010 @ 10:31am | Report comment
As Lee said, to kick a goal from 55 metres is a skill. The point I was making is that it wasn’t the Force’s fault that they were given penalties. Maybe the referee should have stamped down on the Brumbies constant infringments by possibly producing a yellow card? Then they might not have done it again?
Discipline is a part of the game and despite being the most threatening side, the Brumbies didn’t do it very well.
Wales were exactly the same last week. In the second-half, they looked better with ball in hand than England, but suffered because of ill-discipline. England were clinical in punishing them, but no doubt this act of stupidity didn’t help them. The same could be said of the Brumbies.
JK said | February 13th 2010 @ 8:11am | Report comment
Can’t help but think if Harris is third string flyhalf, how far down does Mitchell rate O’Conner as a playmaker? unless he was hoping to run a game plan capitalising on thier own mistakes???????? considering the Brumbies could’nt really put them away…. maybe revolutionary!
Blinky Bill of Bellingen said | February 13th 2010 @ 9:09am | Report comment
That’s a good point JK.
Watching the game unfold and the Force never looking like making a line break, I was wondering to myself ‘what would be going through the coach’s mind now’? He persisted with what ever he was thinking and to be fair it got them into a position where they could have nudged into the lead but for a wayward PG.
Clearly fill-in 5/8 Sam Harris was not having a good night with the boot or directing play and after so many ‘out on the fulls’ I was wondering when Mitch would act. Moving JO to 5/8 seemed the logical move but he must have his reasons.
Fox interview with Harrison (bloodbin) and I’m pretty certain that he stated that they didn’t think the Force were a danger of scoring a try. Was that arrogance or confidence? Which ever…..he was right. And didn’t he play well? Good to see him back in Oz.
Overall entertaining in a way but without a 5/8 the WA boys didn’t have a try in them. I liked the look of their pack though.
Go_the_Wannabe's said | February 13th 2010 @ 9:47am | Report comment
Interesting BBB, I was thinking the same thing……how is Mitchell going to conjure tries? it’s not good enough to have a ‘good defense’ and to be ‘competitive’ and to rely on PG’s . You also have to have ‘attacking moves’. The Force hardly looked like making a line break let alone scoring a try……..I’ll bet Mitch was scratching his head toward the end there……what can we do? what can we do?
The Ref’s are rusty too…….if the crowd can see forward passes and knock on’s why can’t the Ref? And why oh why do they penalise teams for collapsing the scrum when it’s their own feed? Why would you want to do that?
Even the ground announcer was rusty, getting all the names mixed up.
Unless they get their attack sorted out, it’s gunna be a long season for the Force…….
mitzter said | February 13th 2010 @ 8:23am | Report comment
Oh and also james o’connor looks like a princess (is that eyeliner?) i had a good laugh when i saw him involved in a few rucks
Republican said | February 13th 2010 @ 10:16am | Report comment
Yawn, yawn, yawn penalty kick fest
Gary said | February 13th 2010 @ 10:44am | Report comment
Brumbies 24 vs James O’Connor 15! The Force basically didn’t have a number 10 as both the number 1 and 2 candidates are injured and the Brumbies went through the hole several times. Cameron Shepherd was injured in the warm up and didn’t play!
O’Connor was simply outstanding (Man of the Match) and Vallentine played well for the Brumbies (pity he was so useless when playig for the Force. Maybe no Giteau made hi play on his own talents rather than siply following Giteau who BTW was on the field with the team in the warm up and didn’t look very injured.
With no number 10 and missing both of it’s first start wingers (Shepherd and Cummins) due to injury the Force had no attacking capacity. The Brumbies kept punching through the hole at 5/8 all night. I agree the obvious move for Mitch was to move JOK to number 10.
The best part was to finally in a proper rectangular Rugby Stadium. A full house and the Sea of Blue in form. It was good to see Stirling Mortlock get applauded by the Frorce crowd when he got his 1000th Super Rugby points.
JF said | February 13th 2010 @ 11:34am | Report comment
Enough about bloody penalty goals! This is rugby – don’t like it, don’t watch it.
Why do we never hear about set shots in AFL – they basically go through the same motions as rugby a penalty goal, no one seems to mind them!
BTW ground looked great, good to see rugby played in RUGBY grounds.
Blinky Bill of Bellingen said | February 13th 2010 @ 11:54am | Report comment
Yep agree that the ground looked great. I wasn’t sure if it was my new Austar (he says with a smug smirk) or the shape / layout of the ground. Then the Fox commentators made the point that it was ‘a proper Rugby field’.
It looked great, the crowd was engaged. A good night but for the lack of a 1/2 decent 10.
Republican said | February 13th 2010 @ 12:11pm | Report comment
JF
Because five points supposedly continues to be the incentive for running the ball and scoring tries, which is not what Australian Football is about.
Six points is the incentive for kicking straight which, in the main happens in Aust Footy so in that respect the expectation is met, for those who support that code.
Even the Union purist is concerned that balance needs to be restored with tries seemingly the exception in a game that has evolved around a negative mode of defense rather than a positive mode of attack in recent years.
Cheers
adam said | February 13th 2010 @ 1:41pm | Report comment
force brumbies was soooooooo boring nothing but kicking where as bulls free state hardly any kicking and lots of running the ball. so much for people saying all sa teams can do is chip and chase
Peter said | February 13th 2010 @ 3:02pm | Report comment
I just hope for the Bulls sake they tighten up their defence – with Giteau the Brumbies will be able to unleash their backline much more effectively. Conceding 35 points against the Cheetahs is just not good enough. That kind of defence next week and the Brumbies will score 50.
I just hope for the Brumbies sake they learn the new ruck rules as Morne Steyn will have no trouble whatsoever converting penalties into points.
Either team could win (or more correctly, lose) by 40 next week! One thing is for sure, unless both teams work on what went wrong this week it will be a very high scoring game.