The Brumbies have pulled off another epic Super Rugby victory to strengthen their position at the head of the Australian conference.
The Brumbies overcame a nine-point second-half deficit to wind up 37-25 winners in Wellington on Friday.
In a tight tussle, Jake White’s side was down 25-16 late in the third quarter before piling on the last three tries of the night for a memorable bonus-point victory.
It comes as a huge confidence-booster for the Brumbies, who had not won in Wellington since 2003, and they extended their lead atop the Australian conference to 44 points.
That’s 13 points ahead of the Reds, who play the Lions in Brisbane on Saturday.
The Hurricanes looked headed towards victory after scoring two tries after halftime, but gave the visitors a sniff with Andre Taylor and Beauden Barrett both missing their conversions.
Lock Sam Carter started the three-try avalanche in the 55th minute after receiving the ball from lock partner Scott Fardy, who had made an eye-catching line break.
The Brumbies’ attack never faltered and after repeated assaults on the Canes’ line, Michael Hooper was the beneficiary in the 61st minute to give them back the lead for the first time since the first half.
Zack Holmes, making his run-on debut for the season at No.10 following a season-ending injury to Christian Lealiifano, put in an impressive performance under the spotlight.
He put the icing on the cake for the visitors by slipping past three Hurricanes players for the Brumbies’ fourth – and bonus-point – try with 12 minutes to go before the bell.
Holmes also converted his own try, along with three others, and made three from four penalties to score 17 points off his own boot on debut as goalkicker.
Captain Ben Mowen paid due credit to the young playmaker, but said the whole squad had done well in fighting from behind.
“I said to them, when we’re down, just be patient because we are going to get points,” he told Fox Sports.
“We were fortunate enough that we scrambled hard and didn’t give away more points than we did.”
The Hurricanes don’t go away empty handed – their four tries gives them a bonus point of their own – not that it placated skipper Conrad Smith.
“It’s not much of a bonus,” he said.
“We’ve just got to play better.
“We just made a lot of mistakes.”
The game had started ominously for the Hurricanes, who were down 10-0 early when big No.8 Fotu Auelua crashed his way over from close range for the first try of the night and Holmes converted.
But in windy and drizzling conditions at Westpac Stadium, the Brumbies lost their momentum when they began making fundamental errors in their own half – and it cost them.
TJ Perenara scored a first try for the Hurricanes in the 16th minute shortly after the Brumbies were pinged for offside, while a poor line-out eventually gave Victor Vito his chance.
He crashed over directly under the sticks in the 28th minute, with Taylor’s conversion putting the Hurricanes in front 15-13.
The win was the third in a row for the Brumbies, who enjoyed a bye last weekend after victories against the Waratahs at Canberra Stadium and the Lions in South Africa.
Post-match, White said the Brumbies had kept their heads despite conceding four consecutive tries to their opponents – two on either side of halftime.
“The Hurricanes – if you look at them – they’ve conceded the most points in the competition, but they’ve also scored the second most points,” he told AAP.
“But we knew that as long as we worked on the things we knew we had to do, we were going to get some reward out of it.”
White also praised the Brumbies’ solid opening to the game, noting there had been several hurdles to overcome.
“We were always going to be a bit nervous and we had a new halfback combination so it was always going to take time for them to settle down as well,” he said.
“There weren’t a lot of things that were going to go right for us in the first bit of the game … I’m just thankful we finished off strongly.”
He said it was fantastic to have pulled off the Brumbies’ first win in Wellington in almost a decade, while the bonus point was very special.
The Brumbies host the Reds in Canberra on Saturday which should go down as the blockbuster derby of the round.
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Coming off the bench, he scored a double as the Canes beat the Tahs 41-12.
Ben Grant looked to have scored but the officials found a knock-on after the initial charge down.
In a lopsided first half, attacking opportunities were few and far between for NSW.
The Hurricanes took the lead inside the opening three minutes setting the tone for a dominant first half.
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