Flat Brumbies cop caning

April 26, 2009

Hurricanes 56 Brumbies 7

THE Hurricanes are finding their rhythm when it counts, putting together their most complete performance of the season to blitz the Brumbies in Wellington last night.

It was a performance that will have sent a shudder through the top end of the table where the Hurricanes have solidified their place in another scramble for play-off spots.

"We spoke about defence this week and we really let ourselves down," dejected Brumbies captain and No.8 Stephen Hoiles said after the game.

"While their backs scored plenty of tries out wide, I think it was won at the bottom of the breakdown and we let ourselves down there.

"They were just more enthusiastic and very clinical there."

Brumbies coach Andy Friend felt there was perhaps more to the lacklustre performance than simply the emotional toll of the past two weeks catching up with the team following the tragic death of their teammate Shawn Mackay in South Africa.

"That's probably the easy answer to say that, but I think that possibly there are some other issues that we need to address," Friend said.

"A lot of blokes seem to be very flat, we need to find out why.

"I felt our preparation was good but the performance obviously didn't indicate that."

Clearly portrayed as a potential title winner in the lead-up to the tournament, the Hurricanes have spluttered along at times mixing brilliance with ordinary and having coach Colin Cooper lamenting their inability to put it all together.

This win wasn't perfect - but it nearly was and there were certainly signs that the co-ordination is coming when it matters most.

The problematic lineout was comparatively smooth, the scrum solid enough and they were dominant at the breakdowns.

All this helped them to cleverly mix their attack to persistently have the Brumbies on the back foot.

With the Brumbies consciously failing to commit players to the rucks, the Canes' big men, led by Andrew Hore and Jeremy Thrush, were happy to go up the middle to gain plenty of ground.

And when the time came to send the ball wide, the Hurricanes' abundance of back-line talent used it cleverly.

Conrad Smith, Cory Jane, David Smith, Tamati Ellison and in particular Ma'a Nonu were all dangerous every time they touched the ball.

Jane's speed and intuition put him into places other can't get to and his finishing abilities are impressive.

Hurricanes 56: Cory Jane, Conrad Smith, Tamati Ellison, David Smith, Faifili Levave, Zac Guildford 2, Victor Vito tries; Willie Ripia 5 con, 2 pen bt Brumbies 7: Ben Alexander try; Stirling Mortlock con.

http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/s...606647602.html


The Brumbies are running out of puff after a turbulent month...

---------- Post added at 07:27 ---------- Previous post was Yesterday at 10:06 ----------

Brumbies sorry for 'unacceptable' drubbing by Canes
BY PETER FITZGERALDRUGBY UNION
27/04/2009 6:57:00 AM

As the enormity of Saturday night's loss in Wellington continued to set in, the ACT Brumbies apologised to their fans yesterday for their ''unacceptable'' and ''embarrassing'' performance.
The Brumbies returned to Canberra still licking their wounds following their record 56-7 defeat by the Hurricanes in New Zealand.

The team was a bleak unit upon arriving home, still feeling the impact of what was the club's worst result since its inception into Super rugby in 1996.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news...s/1496826.aspx

---------- Post added at 21:14 ---------- Previous post was at 07:27 ----------

Unacceptable: Brumbies sorry for loss
Peter Fitzgerald, Canberra Times | April 27, 2009 - 12:11PM

http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/n...684380754.html

As the enormity of Saturday night's loss in Wellington continued to set in, the ACT Brumbies apologised to their fans yesterday for their "unacceptable" and "embarrassing" performance.

The Brumbies returned to Canberra still licking their wounds following their record 56-7 defeat by the Hurricanes in New Zealand.

The team was a bleak unit upon arriving home, still feeling the impact of what was the club's worst result since its inception into Super rugby in 1996.

Coach Andy Friend and his assistants will spend today reviewing the performance in a bid to work out what went wrong and to try to prevent it from happening again.

"It was an unacceptable performance, totally unacceptable and we won't hide from that," Friend said. "We lost a lot of credit points with our fans tonight and I apologise for that because that type of performance should never have eventuated.

"Credit to the Hurricanes, we met a team that was red hot and they're a damn good football side when on song and we need to fix what we can before we travel to play the Reds."

Friend insisted there would be changes to the team for Saturday night's round-12 fixture against the Queensland Reds in Brisbane.

Utility backs Mark Gerrard and Gene Fairbanks are both expected to be fit to return from injury.Their respective impending returns will spark a back line reshuffle.

Gerrard will likely slot back in at fullback, pushing Adam Ashley-Cooper on to a wing.

Fairbanks could replace Matt Toomua at flyhalf, leaving centre pairing Stirling Mortlock (13) and Tyrone Smith (12) unchanged.

Clyde Rathbone could also be available for selection but will undergo more fitness tests on his injured quadriceps early in the week. While the Reds match may once have been considered a less challenging contest than others, that's no longer the case.

The Queenslanders upset the Auckland Blues in New Zealand on Saturday night, leaving Brumbies captain Stephen Hoiles in no doubt of the challenge facing his troops in five days' time.

"The Reds clashes are always tough games," he said.

"They've shown they want to play a nice style of rugby and have shown, obviously against the Blues most recently, that they are capable of big things.

"I'm just hoping that our big loss will send a message to our guys that we've got a lot of things to work on."

Hoiles gathered his teammates in a huddle on Westpac Stadium moments after Saturday night's eight-tries-to-one rout in Wellington.

He told them to accept the result but not to dwell on it and to remember they had another chance this weekend to rectify things.

"As a group it was very, very embarrassing and certainly disappointing for our fans who saw it," the skipper said.

"All we'll do now is look forward to that Queensland game. That's already our focus now and on our minds.

"We have to look forward, not back. We obviously need to review what went wrong [in Wellington] and not brush over it but we need to move on and not let that bog us down because if we keep winning games, we are still alive in this competition and can still make the finals."