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First up, it is essential that full credit for the Brumbies’ remarkable victory over the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria goes to coach Jake White.
Of course, the players have to perform on the field. But the plotting, planning and inspiring of the victory and the methodical, measured way the Brumbies executed it indicates a supreme coaching effort. Jake White take a bow.
Readers of The Roar will know that I have been critical of the Brumbies stodgy, kicking game that White has imposed on his team.
Indeed, the ARU’s chief executive Bill Pulver made it clear that this way of playing rugby, while it might be successful, is not for the Wallabies or their supporters.
And the less than capacity house at Bruce Stadium last weekend for Qualifier B against the Cheetahs suggests that Jake White’s Brumbies have yet to win over Canberra to their cause.
But, after the defeat of the Bulls, and the manner in which the defeat was orchestrated, the argument can be made that the Brumbies have moved beyond the restrictions imposed on their game for most of this season. Quite simply, this was one of the greatest Super Rugby wins an Australian team has achieved.
The Brumbies had to travel from Canberra to Pretoria in a week and play the top-ranked South African side at its fortress. In five previous Super Rugby home finals, the Bulls had won all five. In 90 percent of their home matches against Australia and New Zealand teams, the Bulls have triumphed.
Pretoria is an altitude venue on The Highveld, which a former Wallaby from the 1963 victory of Australia over South Africa at Johannesburg has pointed out to me is far more tiring and enervating place to play in than playing at the lower altitude at Bloemfontein.
White and his coaching identified a Bulls weakness at the scrum. They also countered the Bulls’ kicking game from Morne Steyn by adopting a rush defence.
The backrow tackled the Bulls runners low which allowed the second man digger/fetcher going for the ball to be successful at crucial times in the match, particularly towards the end when George Smith, the man of the match, made a crucial turnover to allow a Brumbies attack to resume.
The great strength of the Bulls, aside from their usually rampaging forwards, is their driving maul. The Brumbies countered this tactic about as well as it has been done by any team in the past 10 years.
Not once did the Bulls get a legitimate rumble on, and several times the maul was stopped dead in its tracks and the Bulls were forced to turnover the ball.
In the outstanding first half, the Brumbies showed flair and initiative when they ran the ball. They did persist with their tactics of always kicking the ball away when inside their own half. The merit of this play was that it diminished the chances of Steyn kicking penalties, the main way the Bulls score in a big match.
The Brumbies also knew that the Bulls would not run the ball back to them, so the kicks were a way of establishing field position to launch attacks from if the Bulls kickers were put under pressure.
It will be interesting to see if this kicking game is used to any great extent against the Chiefs, a team that has the potential and the inclination to score long-range tries from counter-attacks
The first play of the match revealed the cleverness in Brumbies coaching staff, and the superb execution by the players of the tactics that had been worked out for them to play.
Nic White kicked a long, high and hanging kick-off that was caught near the sideline and well inside the Bulls 22. Clyde Rathbone gave a terrific chase and hammered the catcher before he could get set to pass or run. The Brumbies swarmed in and forced the Bulls to push the ball into touch.
The Brumbies won the lineout and went through seven crisp, effective phases before the Bulls conceded a penalty. Christian Lealiifano kicked the goal. 3-0 to the Brumbies and the Bulls crowd was silenced.
The 16-11 lead at half-time was well-deserved. The Brumbies had smashed the Bulls scrum and won valuable penalties by holding the ball in the back on their own feed, the tactic the British and Irish Lions used to demolish the Wallabies.
The Brumbies tight five need to be applauded for their scrumming work. It seems to me that the inclusion of the two Scotts, prop Scott Sio and second-rower Scott Fardy (a journeyman turned into a very good player by White and Laurie Fisher, the Brumbies forwards coach) into the Wallabies can’t be too far away.
In the second half, the travelling and altitude got to the Brumbies. The Bulls had all the play and all the ball. By the 67th minute, through a series of successful penalties by Steyn, the Bulls had established, finally, a lead 20-19.
Then came a series of decisions by the Bulls that were bizarre and ultimately led to their defeat.
At the 68th and 70th minute mark, the Bulls turned down two easy penalty shots. They kicked for the corners both times and both times the Brumbies turned over the ball in disrupting the attack.
The Bulls crowd shouted their approval of the tactics. I was reminded of Prime Minister Walpole’s comment when the House of Commons roared its approval of The War of Jenkin’s Ear: “They are ringing the bells. They will soon be wringing their hands.”
In the 71th minute, Steyn, bizarrely, attempted a drop goal that failed. Why would he do this after the Bulls had turned down easy penalties?
In the 72nd minute another easy penalty shot at goal was rejected by the Bulls!
Finally, in the 75th minute the Bulls had an easy penalty shot at goal – and Steyn booted the ball through the posts 23 – 19.
The South African commentators, notably Joel Stransky, initially applauded the Bulls decision to “keep the pressure on the Brumbies.”
Apparently, this was a tactic often used by Victor Matfield (now the Bulls lineout coach) in the days when he was supreme in the lineouts and the Bulls were an unstoppable mauling machine.
Well, the Bulls and other teams inclined to adopt the Matfield practice need to understand Spiro’s Rule: Kick the damn penalty, especially when you are leading!
It’s history now that the Brumbies seized the initiative and stormed into the Bulls half. They moved the ball from side to side until Matt Toomua (the best number 10 in Australian rugby) dashed through a gap and linked up with Tevita Kuridrani, the young and powerful Brumbies centre, who raced away, with an arm raised in triumph, to score a try.
Incidentally, the sooner Kuridrani is in the Wallabies backline, the better.
Now the Bulls had 25 seconds and a kick-off left to force a penalty and go into overtime or a try to win the match.
Here is where the genius of White’s coaching is exposed. It is inconceivable that the Brumbies would do a long kick-off with a poor chase if they desperately needed to get the ball back. But this is what the Bulls did. The Brumbies took the ball into a maul, held it until the siren sounded, released it and then booted it into touch.
A word about the refereeing from the all-South African team. Craig Joubert was superb. He ensured that as soon as the rolling maul stopped, he called it. This is unlike other referees who sometimes let teams have three or four stops and re-starts and then penalise the defending side.
Joubert also correctly penalised a Bulls reserve who late in the match jumped off his bench and fielded a kick into touch to prevent a Brumbies quick throw-in. This is the first time I’ve seen a referee do this, and Joubert should be congratulated to doing the right thing by the Brumbies and the spirit of the game.
The TMO, Shaun Veldsman, who has been known to give to curious decisions was asked about the pass from Toomua to Kuridrani in the movement leading up to the final try. Veldsman quickly and correctly ruled that the pass was fine with Toomua’s hands clearly facing backwards as he made the pass.
The Brumbies now have to travel from Pretoria to Hamilton to face the Chiefs in the 2013 Super Rugby final. No New Zealand team has ever lost a home finals match.
The dice look loaded against the Brumbies for next weekend’s match. But then, the dice were loaded against the Brumbies at Pretoria and look at the result, a glorious victory.