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At 6:12pm on Sunday night, SANZAR released the details of next week’s Super Rugby finals. The good news for rugby supporters in Australia is the Brumbies are still alive in the 2013 Super Rugby tournament.
This represents a great achievement for Jake White, who has taken a shattered and dysfunctional franchise into its first finals campaign in nine years.
On Saturday, July 27th, the Chiefs will play the Crusaders at Hamilton AEST 5.35pm. And some hours later, on Sunday AEST 3.05am, the Bulls will play the Brumbies at Pretoria.
If the Brumbies and Crusaders win, the Brumbies will get the home final at Canberra that White has already made plans for, as well as plans for playing the Chiefs if they win.
There has been some criticism of White for looking ahead to the next finals round even before the Brumbies had defeated the Cheetahs. But, it must be remembered, White is a master of finals rugby as he demonstrated with the Springboks in the Rugby World Cup 2007 tournament.
What that tournament proved was that sides had to be prepared to win each individual finals match but also have in place planning for continuing in the tournament.
At halftime on Sunday, with the Brumbies leading 6-5, White said some interesting things to Rod Kafer as the two teams made their way back on to the field.
His comment was, “the mood of the team is good.” He acknowledged the Brumbies had chances of converting field position into points but failed to do so.
“But this is play-off rugby,” he said. “We have to work hard for 80 minutes to get the win.”
As it happened, the match went into its 81st minute. The Cheetahs scored, having been behind 15-8, in the corner. They then needed a conversion to take the score from 15-13 behind to 15-15 and into extra time.
The full-time siren had already sounded and, to the relief of the Brumbies, the conversion missed.
The match was over and the preparations for a battle at Loftus Versfeld had started.
The last 10 minutes of the match saw the Cheetahs unleashing wave after wave of ferocious attacks on the Brumbies try line. The Brumbies reacted with an equally ferocious defence.
White’s mantra about play-off rugby being an 80 minute business had the effect of concentrating the minds and bodies of the Brumbies for their heroic defensive play.
At halftime, with the Brumbies leading 6-5, Greg Clarke pointed out that this year the Brumbies had won or drawn all their home matches when they were leading at halftime.
The call turned out to be a good one. The Brumbies kicked three more successful penalties and this proved to be enough – just.
The Brumbies lineout was not good and this could be a problem against the Bulls, who have Victor Matfield as their lineout and driving maul guru.
Except for one glaring occasion, though, when the Cheetahs marched the Brumbies about 30 metres in a rumbling maul, the Brumbies defence of the rolling maul was excellent.
And surprisingly for an Australian team (the Jake White South African influence?), the Brumbies had the superior scrum.
They used the same tactics as the British and Irish Lions did to flatten the Wallabies by holding the ball in the scrum on their own feed to force penalties.
The Brumbies won two penalties, which were converted into points from this tactic, and they converted a scrum on their 5m line into a penalty and a relieving kick to touch.
I have my doubts about this tactic. The team feeding the scrum has the obligation to ‘use-it or lose it’, the rule that applies to mauls. If a penalty is not won from holding the ball at the back and if the ball is not cleared, the feeding team should lose the right to feed the re-set scrum.
I am waiting for a referee to apply this ruling. Otherwise scrums will become an even greater time waster than they are now if all the teams hold the ball in the back to force a penalty.
The Cheetahs scored an early try from a set move in the backs. But aside from this the Brumbies defended well until Sarel Pretorius came on and started to run at will, almost sparking a Cheetahs winning revival.
The Brumbies defence was helped by the fact the Cheetahs ran their back moves from about 20m behind the gain line. You could see the Brumbies outside back rush up and catch the attackers well behind the advantage line. This made the Cheetahs runners pretty easy picking.
The Bulls play a similar backline game as the Cheetahs, with Morne Steyne kicking most of the time. The Brumbies, too, will have to watch their discipline. They were penalised at the breakdown quite regularly by the New Zealand referee Glen Jackson. And the Bulls are forceful at the breakdown.
Talking about the referees, Jackson had a good day with the whistle, as did South African Jaco Peyper (not my favourite referee, generally) in the Crusaders – Reds match.
The point that came out quite clearly in both these youngish referees was their relatively relaxed displays, given the fact they were genuine neutrals and did not have to prove their ‘neutrality’ with their decision-making.
Two points relating to Wallabies selection came out of the match.
First, the Brumbies scrum that monstered the Cheetahs scrum had two front-rowers (Ben Alexander and Stephen Moore) from the Wallaby scrum that was monstered by the Lions.
The difference, presumably, was the youngster Scott Sio who did enough, I would say, to justify starting for the Wallabies against the All Blacks on August 17.
Second, Matt Toomua is a much better number 10 right now than Quade Cooper, or James O’Connor for that matter. It seems quite obvious that the Toomua/Christian Lealiifano five-eighths combination is the way the Wallabies need to go for a while.
Toomua takes the ball to the line. He has a shrewd variety of passes. He tackles like a flanker. He covers. He runs. And he is tough. Lealiifano complements Toomua in these qualities. They make a strong combination.
After the dire performance of the Reds against the Crusaders, Ewen McKenzie will have to think a lot about injecting more Reds (and especially Cooper) into his first Wallaby side.
None of the backs impressed, not even Will Genia. And Liam Gill was the only forward who seemed to be at the same level as the Crusaders pack.
I’ve been given a hard time by Red-eyed Roarers about my reservations about the 2013 version of Quade Cooper. But even his greatest admirers would have to concede he was poor against the Crusaders.
He stood so deep that Greg Martin complained. His kicking game was generally not effective. He did not run. He has lost his speed. He did not play in the front line on defence but missed or was late to crucial tackles near the Reds tryline.
McKenzie got the Wallaby coaching job on the strength of his 2011 Super Rugby tournament victory and his record of wins against New Zealand teams this season, and previous seasons.
But once again, he coached a Super Rugby finals side (as he did the Waratahs previously) that did not give it a go when it mattered.
You could not say the same thing about the Brumbies. They have the courage to play to their restrictions. Against the Bulls, also a team that plays a restricted game, the Brumbies must be rated a chance.
The main problems they face will be the travel to South Africa and the presence of the Bulls supporters at Loftus Versfeld, who are the 16th and the 17th men on the field for the local side.
But the 2013 Brumbies are a resilient side. They have defeated the Lions this year and won a qualifier against a gutsy and tough South African side. Why should they stop their glory year on Saturday night?
If McKenzie coaches the Wallabies to play the restricted, driving game the Reds tried to play against the Crusaders, god help him with supporters and on the scoreboard.