Brumbies book their place in the Super Rugby finals

The Brumbies have clinched Super Rugby’s Australian conference with a 32-3 bonus-point thrashing of the hapless Melbourne Rebels in Canberra.

Saturday night’s four-tries-to-zero victory means the Brumbies head into the June international break assured of playing finals for the fifth year running.

Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham said his side’s attitude after halftime had sparked the victory.

“It’s not about getting to the final, it’s about winning the final so we need to make sure the push from now until the end of the competition is harder than it’s ever been,” Larkham said.

Playing on a third continent in three weeks, the Brumbies have now won three in a row to rescue their season after four-straight losses.

“We have put in a very good performance under the fatigue of three weeks intense travel and terrible conditions, to win the game with a bonus point,” Larkham said.

Heavy dew made things difficult for players on Saturday night with both sides making handling errors throughout the match.

Despite the slippery conditions, the Brumbies had no problem illustrating the gulf in class between Australia’s best and worst performed franchises this season in front of 8,970 supporters at GIO Stadium.

The Brumbies controlled a scrappy first half and went to the break leading 11-3.

Winger Henry Speight took a quick tap from a penalty on the half hour mark and drew a slew of defenders as he attempted to dive over under the posts.

Two phases later Kyle Godwin found Jordan Smiler out wide, with the No. 8 breaking a 25-game try drought and scoring the only five-pointer of the first half.

The home side made a dream start to the second period with outside centre Tevita Kuridrani bullocking his way through the Rebels’ defence to score under the posts, and Wharenui Hawera added the points to extend the lead to 15.

A brilliant run from flanker Chris Alcock just before the hour mark gave halfback Joe Powell the chance to set up Hawera who crossed under the posts before converting his own try to take the Brumbies to a 25-3 lead.

A dashing break from winger Marika Koroibete late in the second half produced the Rebels’ best chance for a try, but he was denied by Tom Banks and Kyle Godwin metres from the line.

Rebels coach Tony McGahan said his side had made too many mistakes in the greasy conditions.

“There was a bit of dropped ball from both sides,” McGahan said

“We conceded to make ours a little bit worse but I thought they cleaned up things really well.”

Nigel Ah Wong completed the rout, crossing in the dying minutes to cap a dominant Brumbies performance.

Hawera notched both his penalty goal attempts while Reece Hodge scored the Rebels’ only points of the match with a long-range penalty goal mid way through the first half.