'A lot of courage': Brumbies win ugly over Blues to deliver Super Rugby statement against Kiwis

Noah Lolesio described it best. Ugly, but whatever. The Brumbies have toppled the Blues in Melbourne to make a statement for Australian rugby against their trans-Tasman rivals.

Hours earlier Eddie Jones described the Rebels’ gallant effort against the Hurricanes as not good enough.

“We want wins against New Zealand teams,” the new Wallabies coach told ABC’s Offsiders.

And win the Brumbies did, hanging on to seal a memorable 25-20 victory over the glitzy Blues after a scoreless second half.

“It was ugly the last 15-20 minutes, but against a side like the Blues sometimes you’ve just got to win ugly,” Lolesio said.

“I’m really glad on how we fought through it. The Blues are a quality side and I’m sure they’ll light it up later in the year, but very happy on how we finished.”

Lachlan Lonergan was instrumental in the Brumbies’ win over the Blues. Photo: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

Indeed it was ugly. The Brumbies scored three first half tries, but two of them came from the rolling maul.

For those longing for the good ol’ days of Stephen Larkham and Joe Roff lighting up Super Rugby they would have been shaking their heads.

Justin Harrison, Larkham’s former teammate, said during commentary for Stan Sport if the Brumbies had of gone to the rolling maul from a lineout when they were playing the forwards would have been given a serve.

Now it is Larkham’s side that returned to their forwards strength, as they smashed the Blues, who have All Blacks from halfback to fullback, up front and at the set-piece to land an early blow on their trans-Tasman opponents.

“We’re going out to play a certain way, and the Blues went out to play a certain way, and sometimes it doesn’t eventuate for whatever reason; sweat on the ball, referees, wind conditions, and it hampers what you go out there to try and achieve and today we were faced with that,” Larkham said.

“We were faced a situation where we didn’t quite get to play the way we wanted to play, but we found a way to win and that’s something that we also want to see in this team. There’s a style that we want to play with, but we also need a lot of heart and we saw that this afternoon.”

While there were plenty of points in the first half, the second half started as a grind and continued that way.

On a hot and muggy Sunday afternoon, chances went begging but the Brumbies’ brilliance at the breakdown denied the Blues from opening them up.

Rieko Ioane had an early chance in the second half, but the All Blacks star selfishly threw a dummy and Tom Wright made a try-saving tackle.

From that point on it was a war of attrition, with very little fluency of play and the breakdown hotly contested.

Blake Schoupp reacts following a big breakdown penalty against the Blues. Photo: by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

But the Brumbies continued to turn up in defence and especially at the breakdown.

The entire front-row, including bench replacements Blake Schoupp and Rhys Van Nek, were excellent.

Their task was made more difficult by the early loss of Allan Alaalatoa to a concussion, which will see the Brumbies captain miss next week’s home match against the Reds.

Nick Frost and the backrow, particularly openside flanker Rory Scott, were brilliant while Andy Muirhead and Corey Toole were lively out wide.

Brumbies veteran James Slipper said he was pleased with the result but wasn’t getting carried away with the win.

“There was a lot of courage out there today, it was a hot day so we knew it was going to be a tough ask and the first half there was a lot of attack, plenty of tries and then that second half was all character,” he said.

“It was about hanging in the moment and competing hard. We were very pleased with the result but it’s round two, so we’ll move on.”

Andy Muirhead scored early for the Brumbies during their win over the Blues in Melbourne. Photo: Daniel Pockett/Getty Image

After an early penalty to Ryan Lonergan, the match started with plenty of pace.

New Zealand referee Ben O’Keefe wasn’t mucking about either, showing Caleb Clarke a yellow card for a deliberate knockdown.

Moments later, the Blues had another player sent to the bin as prop James Lay was also shown a yellow card for collapsing the rolling maul. The penalty try gave the Brumbies an early 10-0 lead.

But the Blues hit back soon after as the Brumbies gave away four penalties and Ricky Riccitelli scored.

The Brumbies managed to restore their 10-point lead when Muirhead crossed out wide.

Both sides then traded penalties, before Tom Robinson cut through some lazy defence by Slipper and Cadeyrn Neville.

The Brumbies, however, managed to finish the half on a high as Lonergan scored from another rolling maul.

After Ioane’s blown opportunity, the battle turned to the ground. It was a battle the Brumbies won, with master breakdown coach Laurie Fisher’s expertise paying off.

Despite failing to take their chances in the second half, Test halves Nic White and Noah Lolesio managed to control the match to seal their second straight win to start the season.

Nor was it just any old victory either, with victories precious against New Zealand opposition. And while it won’t ease the pain from last year’s semi-final knockout, it could well give them the confidence they need to push on in 2023.

“Obviously happy,” Larkham said.

“We put a lot of effort into the start of the campaign this year and just really pleased with how hard that game was and how hard our guys pushed.

“It was physical up front, there was a bit of a set-piece batter there at times, there was good breakdown pressure and certainly very difficult to continually get up with their big bodies coming at us. But I was blown away at the amount of physicality and courage that our bodies had out there.”