Brumbies flyhalf Noah Lolesio has missed a sideline conversion on the final siren as the Crusaders escaped with a thrilling 31-29 win in Christchurch.
The Crusaders were cruising to victory after skipping out to a 31-17 lead with just 10 minutes remaining in Saturday night’s Super Rugby Trans-Tasman clash.
A magical solo try to Brumbies fullback Tom Banks – when he shook off three tacklers in a 62 metre sprint to the line – got the visitors back in the game in the 72nd minute.
A 79th-minute yellow card to Crusaders substitute Ereatara Enari further opened the door, and the margin was just two points when a clever inside flick from Brumbies winger Tom Wright sent No.8 Rob Valetini over.
It left Lolesio with a chance to draw the game, but he squeezed the tough sideline conversion to the left to narrowly miss as the final siren sounded.
Lolesio hunched over in disappointment, but his teammates ran in to console him after what had been a remarkable late fightback from the Brumbies.
“Definitely proud of the effort, especially the fight we showed in the second half,” Brumbies captain Allan Ala’alatoa told Stan Sport after the match.
“Looking at the boys, we’re devastated at the loss. We came out here to win.”
Tom Wright charges forward. (Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)
Crusaders captain David Havili praised the Brumbies for their fighting effort.
“The Brumbies came and took it up to us,” he said.
“(We had) tired legs from last week, but you can’t blame that. It’s a new competition and you’ve got to step up. It wasn’t good enough, but we came away with the win.”
The first 20 minutes was a dour affair filled with failed scrums and uncharacteristic handling errors.
The one bright spark was a fifth-minute try to flanker Ethan Blackadder, who got on the end of a nice Crusaders move to touch down in the corner.
Scott Sio barged over on 27 minutes to give the Brumbies the lead, but the Crusaders hit back with two more tries to finish the half.
Flyhalf Richie Mo’unga threw a dummy to fool the Brumbies defence in the 29th minute.
And seven minutes later Havili intercepted a pass from Brumbies scrumhalf Ryan Lonergan before embarking on a 50 metre sprint to the line, giving the home side a 19-7 halftime lead.
The Crusaders dominated the early stages of the second half, but it was the Brumbies who struck first when Simone picked up the ball from a breakdown and touched down under no pressure.
Brumbies substitute Luke Reimer pulled off a brilliant try-saving tackle to deny Blackadder in the 60th minute, but tries to Brendon O’Connor and Cullen Grace within six minutes of each other looked to have sealed the win.
The Brumbies attacked hard at the death, and they came within a whisker of coming away with the draw in a gutsy effort against the NZ champions.
The Ferret
Roar Rookie
I have reffed and I do know just how hard it can be. However I did not have the advantage of two official linesman and a Video ref or the luxury of a TMO. I just have higher expectations from the refs at a professional level than I do of myself and the guys doing their best at the local park. I’m not here to bash refs and have respect for the jobs they do. I guess the grey area of the “ball was released backwards” is becoming bigger in my opinion. Also not bitter about the results. There were some good games - force and Brumbies games were great. Hoping the Reds will show up this week.
Francisco Roldán
Guest
The BRUs were effective than CRU on each visit to 22 yards (+ 15.5%) but CRU reached more easily using 7 carries for each visit to the "red zone". CRU and BRU defenses worked hard, showing the best #SuperRugbyTransTasman ratios: 1.1 tackle for each carrie executed. But the positive tackle ratio favored BRU this time. BRU's scrum faced 16 kilos less than CRU's and paid for it more than anything. The differences that we thought we had in favor of the @SuperRugbyNZ teams are not being presented.
Honest Max
Roar Rookie
It would be simpler? Sure…. Forward to whom? Forward to the running player that passed it or the one that caught it? Or from the person sitting stationary? The earth is spinning at 460m/s so who knows how the pass looks from orbit. Because there are multiple interpretations of what forward is, relative to the circumstances of each viewer, we should perhaps use the interpretation that World Rugby has devised as they fortunately taken physics into account. This is why they have chosen to define ‘forward’ from the perspective of the passer, and this why it matters if it’s backwards from their hands. Einstein is dead so it’s hard to argue with him now.
Honest Max
Roar Rookie
Whinging about biased officials - don’t you guys get tired of this stuff?
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Have you ever reffed Ferret? Should try it sometime, as I, then you just might realise, it's not as easy as some appear to think. If anything, it was the overall officialdom, during the weekend, that was the problem.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Oh Dean, your Nags, were so lucky, that the Saders had a bad game, in fact, possibly their worst of the season.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Hey Ferret, what was the winning percentage of Aussie teams again over the weekend?
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Charlie, both sides had quality players missing.
jameswm
Roar Guru
agreed he carried well. But he can’t be picked for the wallabies right now because of his scrummaging, unless Fainga’a cops most of the blame.
P2R2
Roar Rookie
Crusaders were minus players as well....
Bodger
Roar Rookie
He looked a bit off his game I thought until something like the last 15min and then just went into overdrive. He’s been fantastic this year, so great to see we have a proper powerful backrower.
Bodger
Roar Rookie
Sio probably had the best game he’s had in years, apart from the scrums. Bell had a very good game for the Tahs I thought. Sio is well past his best.
adam smith
Guest
I’m with you Jazdexter, it would be so much simpler if the rule was, “If the ball travelled forward, it’s forward”…
jameswm
Roar Guru
Ok, understood what you mean. I’m still happy with the rules though.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
Actually, I think ‘Straya is like 3 or more hours behind New Zealand.
Olly
Roar Rookie
Yep, very amature move IMO. Players should have been able to back up if they think they are up to Test Level...
Paul
Roar Rookie
Thanks, Eddie I appreciate your rigorous insight. I’d rather not watch 5+ mins of cynical infringement as the way to shut down a game, with a narrow lead. That’s not the kind of rugby I want to watch. You have a different view – to which you are welcome. If that separates us into those who grew up on cynical infringement as a path to glory and those who didn’t, well hey maybe we do barrack for different teams. Who knew?
Jezdexter
Roar Rookie
Sorry for the long reply mate, just want to let you know why I stand on the side of that being a forward pass and why the ball out of hand thing is, in my opinion subjective. The rule is "a player must not intentionally throw the ball forward" The definition of forward is pretty self explanatory, in this case the ball clearly went forwards so it becomes all about the intent of the thrower. The backwards out of the players hands thing is an interpretation of the intent of the player throwing the ball. In my opinion that makes it subjective because I can throw a ball backwards from my hands and intentionally spin it in a manner that will send it forwards. I'm not really good at rugby, so if I can do it I'd imagine a lot of professional players can as well. With that particular pass, the Brumbies weren't going to stop the try if the ball had gone backwards. If Blackadder had taken the ball on or behind the line it was thrown from he would have scored, or thrown it wider again where there was a winger waiting to score. So I have no issue with the call, but I still see that as a forward pass. If the Brumbies had a hope in hell of stopping the try i'd be really annoyed by the call.
Adsa
Roar Rookie
Nu Zoolnd are a back dated country so Google something from early 2000's.
Lux Interior
Roar Rookie
No problem identifying your nationality though, Poorly. What a load of drivel.