Young CA Brumbies fall to Tahs in trial

The CA Brumbies have gone down 48-19 in their first Investec Super 14 trial against the NSW Waratahs at a soggy Bluetongue Stadium in Gosford tonight.

The youthful CA Brumbies’ dominant first-half performance, built on a willingness to move the ball and keen defence was enough to take a 19-10 half-time lead before wholesale changes from both sides at the break resulted in a late Waratahs scoring surge.

CA Brumbies Head Coach Laurie Fisher, who has the luxury of bringing in Test stars such as George Smith, Julian Huxley, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Stephen Hoiles and Mark Gerrard for his side’s next trial against the Hurricanes, said he was pleased with his young team’s performance tonight.

“I was very impressed with our first-half effort,” he said. “Both sides said they’d put their best sides on in the first half and I thought we did some tremendous things there.

“We were pretty happy across the board. Tyrone Smith, Leo Afeaki, young Sipa [Taumoepeau] out the back and our forward pack were good. We gave a bit of easy yardage off the line which we’ll work to fix up but we were generally pretty happy with how things went.”

The Waratahs, boasting nine of their Wallabies, struck first after 11 minutes when Adam Freier snuck across on the back of a rolling maul five metres from the CA Brumbies’ line. The CA Brumbies hit back five minutes later when lock Peter Kimlin charged onto a slick inside pass from scrumhalf Patrick Phibbs to slide through adjacent to the posts.

However, the visitors’ 7-5 lead was stolen on the stroke of quarter time when Waratahs No.8 Wycliff Palu ran around the CA Brumbies defence after taking a pass from Brett Sheehan off the back of a five-metre scrum.

Spurred on by their last-minute lapse in the previous quarter, the CA Brumbies turned in a spirited defensive effort in the second denying the Waratahs on several occasions with a desperate scramble off their own goal line before Salesi Ma’afu swooped on a loose Benn Robinson pass 35 metres from his own line to link with Mitch Chapman and Patrick Phibbs. A long cut-out pass from Christian Lealiifano in the ensuing phase found Tyrone Smith and fullback Afusipa Taumoepeau, who crossed in the corner to score. Anthony Faingaa sailed home his second conversion attempt to extend the lead by four.

The Canberra-based side took the half-time advantage when winger Richard Windsor raced down the right touchline before the ball was spread around a reeling a Waratahs defence where it eventually found an unlikely recipient in John Ulugia out wide, who crashed over for a 19-10 lead.

Referee Matt Goddard’s frustration with continual ruck infringements in the second half cost CA Brumbies locks Dan Guinness and Adam Wallace-Harrison two separate ten-minute spells on the sideline with the Waratahs taking full advantage, running in two tries with each one-man overlap to win over a 36-19 lead.

Waratahs centre Tom Carter completed the scoring with a double in the final four minutes.

The CA Brumbies play the Hurricanes in their final pre-season trial in Levin next Friday.


MATCH DETAILS
NSW Waratahs 48 (Tom Carter 2; Adam Freier, Wycliff Palu, Matt Dunning, Sekope Kepu, Robert Horne, Tatafu Polota-Nau tries; Kurtley Beale 2 conversions, Brett Sheehan 2 conversion) defeated CA Brumbies 19 (Peter Kimlin, Afusipa Taumoepeau, John Ulugia tries; Anthony Faingaa 2 conversions) at Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford.
Referee: Matt Goddard
Half time: CA Brumbies 19-10
Crowd: 5,185


CA Brumbies
1. Nic Henderson
2. Huia Edmonds
3. Guy Shepherdson
4. Alister Campbell
5. Peter Kimlin
6. Mitchell Chapman
7. Richard Stanford
8. Jone Tawake
9. Patrick Phibbs
10. Christian Lealiifano
11. Leo Afeaki
12. Anthony Faingaa
13. Tyrone Smith
14. Peter Playford
15. Afusipa Taumoepeau

Reserves
16. John Ulugia
17. Salesi Ma’afu
18. Adam Wallace-Harrison
19. Talalelei Gray
20. Nick Haydon
21. Matt Toomua
22. Richard Windsor
23. Rowan Kellam
24. Pauliasi Taumoepeau
25. Ben Alexander
2. Saia Faingaa
4. Dan Guinness

Replacements
<Not recorded>

Yellow cards:
Dan Guinness (47th minute)
Adam Wallace-Harrison (65th minute)


NSW Waratahs
1. Benn Robinson
2. Adam Freier
3. Al Baxter
4. Daniel Vickerman
5. Will Caldwell
6. Dean Mumm
7. Phil Waugh [c]
8. Wycliff Palu
9. Brett Sheehan
10. Kurtley Beale
11. Ben Batger
12. Sam Harris
13. Timana Tahu
14. Matt Carraro
15. Lachie Turner

Reserves
16. Tatafu Polota-Nau
17. Matt Dunning
18. Ben Mowen
19. Beau Robinson
20. Ben Jacobs
21. Luke Burgess
22. Tom Carter
23. Sekope Kepu
24. Chris Thomson
25. Dylan Sigg
26. Patrick McCutcheon
27. Alfi Mafi
28. Robert Horne

Replacements
<Not recorded>

Brumbies Rugby | Young CA Brumbies fall to Tahs in trial