They were made to play until the last whistle, but the ACT Brumbies held on to post an important 28-20 win over the Fijian Drua in Canberra on Saturday night.
After opening up a 21-3 lead off the back of two tries to Test centre Len Ikitau, Mick Byrne’s Drua scored two converted tries to close the margin to 21-17 midway through the second half to have the Brumbies on the ropes.
But a superb cameo off the bench from loose-forward Luke Reimer, who won two crucial on-ball penalties and then scored a try, proved to be match-defining.
“It got a bit cold on the bench watching,” Reimer later quipped. “I just came on and did my job.”
Luke Reimer delivered a match-winning performance off the bench against the Fijian Drua at GIO Stadium on May 04, 2024. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
His coach Stephen Larkham added: “He was good tonight. We were talking about making a change with about 30 minutes to go so he had to sit on the bench for another 10 minutes. His first involvement was a steal at the breakdown and then down the other end he gets a try, so he’s had a really good night.”
That he did and without his impact, the Brumbies may well have left the wintry, wet evening without the crucial four points.
At the heart of the Brumbies’ troubles were their discipline issues.
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The home side was on the end of a 17-9 penalty count, with the Drua dominating the scrum and physical battles.
“It was a tough game,” Test front-rower Allan Alaalatoa said.
“That was expected. Fiji are a great outfit.
“They put us under immense pressure all game, especially through their physicality and then their set-piece, so we’ve got a lot to look at moving forward.”
Ikitau put it more bluntly: “They put us under a lot of pressure with their ball-runners and we’ve got to fix that, that was terrible and we’ll go again next week.”
Len Ikitau scored a first-half double for the Brumbies in their narrow win over the Fiji Drua at GIO Stadium on May 04, 2024. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
Alaalatoa, who was playing his second match following his Achilles injury last July, said their challenges came off the back of losing the physicality battle.
“They were winning the collisions a lot, which meant that they put us on the back foot,” he said.
“Our boys were probably trying too hard, a few penalties coming in from the side, things that we can control, but I think that just all comes off the back of losing the collisions.”
Drua skipper Meli Derenalagi was one of his side’s best but recognised the Brumbies were ripe for the picking midway through the second half.
“It was a very frustrating match for us,” the back-rower said.
“We knew the Brumbies would be playing their hearts out in front of their home fans, but we brought that physicality and intensity. We will learn from this game and work on it for the next three games.”
Early on and it looked like it would be one-way traffic.
Ikitau scored in the sixth minute before his skipper Alaalatoa crossed two minutes later.
After a stack of possession and territory, the Drua decided opted to try and take three and Isaiah Amstrong-Ravula put the visitors on the board after 35 minutes.
The Brumbies however immediately responded as Ikitau scored his second after storming onto a lovely grubber from midfield partner Tamati Tua.
But the Drua managed to take the momentum into half-time when Isoa Nasilasila scored off the back of a rolling maul. His late five-pointer saw the Drua cut the margin to 21-10 at half-time.
The home side saw none of the ball in the second half as the Drua took control.
Eventually, referee Nic Berry lost his patience and sent replacement prop Harry Vella, who came on early for James Slipper, to the sin bin in the 51st minutes.
Seconds later the Drua had their second try, with Simione Kuruvoli scoring down the short side from a scrum to make it a four-point game.
Enter Reimer, who immediately made his presence felt at the defensive breakdown.
After winning his side two penalties, the breakaway showed he’s no one-trick pony by scoring an important try as the Brumbies stopped the bleeding.
Armstrong-Ravula managed to reduce the deficit back to eight but the Brumbies found a way to secure the win.
“A bit of frustration, probably,” Larkham summed up the match.
“I thought they played exceptionally well. When you look at their last couple of games, they haven’t been that team that they showed tonight and they came out ready to play and they put it to us, and we sort of battled throughout that first half. They genuinely played really well in that second half.”
Mike88
Roar Rookie
Thank you Baz for confirming what I've been saying for ages. Unlike world class 10s, he's just a distributor which will offer no threat against any of the top 6/7 teams. I think the idea of depends what you want - are you saying what you want is a guy completely different to the best 10s in the world? Because I get lost in the Lolesio arguement. He's big enough, he just doesn't have the heart for it.
Mike88
Roar Rookie
Rich nobody in the history of time would coach someone to tackle like Lolesio. It's the same everywhere hips square leading leg splits the body drop height late etc. Compare that to him.
Messy Jog
Roar Rookie
Tamati Tua - he looks better and better. As opposed to Aidan Toua, a recruit from Queensland and possibly the worst performer I ever saw in a Brumbies shirt!
Messy Jog
Roar Rookie
Haha fair points, Jack! Can you imagine the hype if certain other Aussie sides were sitting on 8 wins after 10 games, having beaten all the other Aussies plus 4/6 of the NZ and Pacific sides they've played?!
Baz
Roar Rookie
He is more of a distributor rather than a line breaker. Depends what you want from a 10. He is listed at 89kgs but his upper body needs some bulk.
elysiusrugby
Roar Rookie
Yeah, I said he's alright but he isn't a great defender. Ikitau's great, Tua decent and the others are plain bad defensively.
RichTheTraveller
Roar Rookie
Nice, ty
RichTheTraveller
Roar Rookie
I think it's tackling technique, I think the Brumbies have some kind of plan for how they bring players down and it doesn't involve much tripping so guys like NL fall off more often than they might in a different system.. lynagh is 83kg and he's got the best tackle stats of all our 10s.. but then, the reds know how to defend
RichTheTraveller
Roar Rookie
Nice comments, I think Wright and Kellaway can play together, Kellaway on the wing, reminds me of Adam Ashley Cooper.. yeah Marika and Samu were very unimpressive for mine
SGrey
Roar Rookie
"What was the point in Jorgo skipping all the pathways like JWB and Shute?" NSWRU and RA panicked - they got bullied by his agent, and ultimately let Jorgensen down...."too much too young" as the Specials said.
PeterK
Roar Guru
BPA is classified as a domestic player, arrives in June , signed to play for the force next year.
PeterK
Roar Guru
agree BPA is also back in June so is available for test as a domestic player. Alex Hodgeman (ex AB, Aust eligible playing for reds) should be the starting LHP. Sio can be brought in from o/s if needed if Slipper isn't up to it.
Cec
Roar Rookie
AA who’s your team, just curious? We still have memberships for sale. Sounds like you want to jump on the bandwagon but are keen to keep your options open.
Cec
Roar Rookie
:laughing: Yeah, I’ll remember to refer to you when looking for anything to be defined as ‘normal’ :laughing: freak, really …alternative perspective, you don’t like the facts so choose to ignore them for a more ‘reliable’ :laughing: eyeball assessment. That’s not where modern coaching is headed by the way. Everything gets measured these days. Funny how you’ve just referred to a stat (I assume) with a reference to Noah’s goal kicking at test level. You’re getting lost in your own dribble swapping between logic there trying to prove a point. That’s not ‘normal’
Cec
Roar Rookie
:laughing: Yeah, I’ll remember to refer to you when looking for anything to be defined as ‘normal’ :laughing: freak, really …alternative perspective, you don’t like the facts so choose to ignore them for a more ‘reliable’ eyeball assessment. Funny how you’ve just referred to a stat (I assume) with a reference to Noah’s goal kicking at test level. You’re getting lost in your own thoughts it seems
Cec
Roar Rookie
Different skill sets Jez as neither of those two Brums had a boot like RH or athleticism, also there’s no context around team need at the time, ie injury cover. CF is right Pat was a 12, I’m not sure McCabe played anywhere but 12 at WB, all.rugby is a good database for this stuff. Robbie really wanted 10 but just couldn’t compete with guys ahead of him although had the speed to play in the back three & pretty sure 10/15 was for injury cover and did a job for the Brums but always moved back to his spot on the wing. RH is very different to Robbie as he had the physical attributes and skill sets that would have come out under a stable team at 12 or as you preferred 15. The point being under a team stacked with good players in their own positions RH wouldn’t have to cover so many spots like he did being on the Rebs.
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
Ah, sorry. Yes, got it. He’s rocks and diamonds. Worked with his old many years ago and a little odd was the kindest I could be. Elite performer but difficult to deal with
Mike88
Roar Rookie
It's too early for Rodda. Agree with everything else. IF we are only picking from home Uelese must step up. His lineout has improved and having the wallaby lineout coach can't hurt. Outside of Fess there's nobody else who should be looked at from home. I like Nasser but he hasn't got the time I hoped he would. One for the future.
Mike88
Roar Rookie
There's certainly aspects of Ikitau's game that you would say are world class now - certainly defence and he's an absolute lock in at 13 for the Wales series. I was at the Irish game where he moved to 12 and I have to say I thought more could be made of that too. He's one of our few players that other top 10 sides would want. Over the long term I'd like to see him more threatening with the ball in hand. I'm not saying he's not currently but there's more there I think for him to be in the top 3 #13s. As has been mentioned, it depends upon who's inside him. I can't be Kerevi at 12. Nor someone as transparent as Lolesio at 10.
AgainAgain
Roar Rookie
He can’t claim to be the world’s best 13 when he is only playing SR and he needs to string more than a handful of tests together. He has shown he is a class player no doubt, but to be the best 13 in the world, I personally think you need to play at least a couple of full international seasons and show he is consistently better than his opposing centre, not a couple of good games. He is definitely up to it.